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LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 

"Received     y^^      6    V893  '^9 

<tAccessions  No.  i^^'^S     .  Class  No. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

Microsoft  Corporation 


http://Yvww.archive.org/details/educationabroadwOOnortrich 


EDUCATION  ABROAD 


AND   OTHER  PAPERS, 


BV 


BIRDSEY  GRANT  NORTHROP,   LL.D., 

8ECKETART  OF   CONNECTICUT  BOARD   OF  EDUCATION. 


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Nero  fork  onb  CI)icago  : 
A.     S.    BARISTES     &    CO 

1873. 


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Entered,  according  to  act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  187S, 

BY  BIRDSEY  GRANT  NORTHROP, 

in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PRINTED  BY 
TUTTLE,  MOREHOUSE  &  TAYLOR, 

221  State  st..  New  Haven,  Ct, 


TO 

The    Hon.    JOHN    AMORY    LOWELL, 

OF    THE    LOWELL    INSTITUTE, 
BOSTON, 

THIS    BOOK 

IS  RESPECTFULLY  DEDICATED. 


CONTENTS. 


SHOULD  AMERICAN  TOUTH  BE  EDUCATED  ABROAD? 
Schools  of  Prussia  over-praised — German  Universities — Moral  Atmosphere  and 
Political  Influences — Caesarism — Opinions  of  Presidents  of  our  leading  Col- 
leges—  President  Stearns  of  Amherst,  Eliot  of  Harvard,  Crosby  of  New 
York  University,  Angell  of  Michigan  University,  Caswell  of  Brown  Univer^ 
sity,  Reed  of  University  of  Missouri,  Fairchild  of  Oberhn,  Kitchel  of  Mid- 
dlebury.  Brooks  of  Kalamazoo,  Buckham  of  University  of  Vermont,  Andrews 
of  Marietta,  Porter  of  Yale,  Chadbourn  of  Williams,  Jackson  of  Trinity,  Bar- 
nard of  Columbia,  McCosh  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey,  Eliot  of  Washing- 
ton University,  Chapin  of  Beloit,  Smith  of  Dartmouth,  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson, 
and  other  eminent  Educators  and  Journals, Page  5 

LEGAL  PREVENTION  OP  ILLITERACY. 
Compulsory  Education  favored  by  the  laboring  classes  in  Grermany — Similar  pro- 
visions early  adopted  in  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  and  Education  then 
universal  —  Causes  of  absenteeism  and  illiteracy,  Remedies  —  Objections 
answered — Switzerland,  Holland,  Austria,  France,  England — Views  of  Jules 
Simon,  Guizot,  Geo.  Dixon,  M.  P.,  and  W.  E.  Forster,  M.  P. — ^Working  Men'iS 
Congress — Joseph  Arch, Page  77 

CULTURE  AND  KNOWLEDGE. 
Motto  of  Pres.  Woolsey — True  theory  of  Education — The  Processes  best  for  dis- 
cipline, best  also  for  acquisition — These  principles  applicable  even  to  the 
simplest  rudiments — Law  of  Memory — Power  of  using  the  faculties  and 
resources  the  secret  of  success — Permanency  of  teachers  in  Germany,  Swit- 
zerland, Ontario  and  United  States  compared — Foreign  systems  in  this  respect 
superior, Page  96 

THE  PROFESSIONAL  STUDY. 
Mental  Philosophy  the  foundation  of  Didactics — An  aid  in  Mental  Discipline — 
Shows  the  true  methods  and  aim  of  study — Faculties  to  be  educated — Order 
of  their  Development — Adaptation  of  exercises  and  studies  to  each — Proper 
order  of  studies — Favors  self-knowledge — Dignities  the  Teacher's  work — 
Facilitates  school  government — Philosophy  of  Motive, Page  110 


Vi  CONTENTS. 

STUDY  AND  HEALTH. 
Slaughter  of  the  Innocents — Laws  of  Hygiene — Health  of  German  boys  and  Eng- 
lish girls — Precocity — Study  favorable  to  health — Illustrations  from  "West 
Point  and  Amherst  College  —  Drones  have  the  toughest  time — More  rust 
out  than  wear  out — Health  and  Longevity  of  Scholars — Statistics  of  Yale 
and  Harvard  Graduates,  _ _ Page  120 

LABOR  AS  AN  EDUCATOR. 
A  help  in  intellectual  culture — Business  pursuits  may  educate — Every  child  should 
leam  to  work  —  Rural  life  healthful  for  the  juvenile  mind  —  Apprentice- 
ships encouraged — Their  limitation  an  infringement  of  the  rights  of  minors 
—  Short-sighted  policy  of  "Trade  Unions"  —  "Genteel"  employments  — 
Skilled  mechanics — Influence  of  Industrial  Schools  of  Germany  and  Switzer- 
land in  dignifying  labor,  and  turning  artisans  to  artists  —  Rule  of  the 
Hebrews, Page  135 

EDUCATION  AND  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS. 
The  Labor  Question — Education  the  solution — Education  and  Industrial  Progress 
— Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  History — Universal  Exposition  in  Paris — 
English  Testimony  —  Prof,  Tyndall,  Dr.  Playfair,  A.  J.  Mundella,  M.  P., 
J.  Scott  Russell,  and  others  —  Cause  of  Decline  of  English  Manufactures — 
Parliamentary  Report, Page  144 

EDUCATION  AND   INVENTION. 
Experience  of    Connecticut  —  Education  universal  —  Hence  Inventiveness  and 
thrift — Evidence  from  Patent  Office — Gen.  Eaton, Page  153 

LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HARMONIZED. 
Adjustment  of  Labor  and  Capital  a  leading  question  of  the  age — The  difficulty 
not  settled  by  the  Internationals  and  the  Commune,  nor  by  Violence, 
Force  or  Law  —  But  by  Fair  Play,  Mutual  Concession  and  Cooperation  — 
Equality  of  Conditions  unnatural — Capital  and  Labor  Co-partners — Strikes 
harmful  to  both — Political  Economy  in  Schools — Manufacturing  invited  or 
repelled, Page  156 

LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  PRACTICALLY  HARMONIZED. 

A  Model  Manufacturing  Village — Half  century's  experience — Strikes  unknown — 

"Workmen  permanent,  weU  paid,  own  homesteads,  get  forehanded — Boards 

of  Arbitration  and  Conciliation — English  methods  of  harmonizing  Labor  and 

Capital — Industrial  Partnerships,  Cooperation, Page  161 

APPENDIX. 
Letter  of  Dr.  J.  P.  Thompson  from  Berlin — German  accuracy  in  minutiae — Nar- 
rowness of  their  scholarship — America  no  longer  a  borrower, Page  1*72 


PREFACE 


The  educational  systems  of  Europe  have  many  distinctive 
excellences  which  we  need  to  copy.  My  objections  to  educating 
American  youth  abroad  do  not  arise  from  any  disparagement  of 
foreign  systems,  as  will  be  evident  in  another  volume  on  "  The 
Schools  of  Europe  and  what  we  ought  to  leakn  from 
THEM,"  comprising  most  of  the  twelve  lectures  lately  given  before 
the  Lowell  Institute.  Two  lectures  only  of  that  course  appear  in 
this  book.  To  check  the  mischievous  mania  for  European  edu- 
cation, just  now  in  fashion,  I  have  procured  and  combined  the 
opinions  of  the  most  competent  judges  in  this  country,  and  also 
of  an  eminent  American  scholar  long  resident  in  Berlin,  who  has 
carefully  examined  German  schools  and  systems  of  instruction, 
and  gives  the  testimony  of  an  eye-witness.  The  last  letter  of 
Dr.  Thompson,  received  too  late  for  insertion  with  the  others, 
will  be  found  in  the  appendix.  All  the  correspondents  addressed 
endorsed  my  views  except  one  who  "  had  not  examined  the  sub- 
ject." The  unanimous  opinions  of  these  eminent  educators  should 
influence  public  sentiment.  The  cooperation  of  the  press  is 
respectfully  solicited  in  correcting  the  prevalent  error  in  question. 

The  other  papers  embody  views  confirmed  by  long  service  in 
the  official  inspection  of  schools,  and  are  designed  to  meet  urgent 
public  exigences.  In  the  Southern  States,  compulsory  education 
would  yet  be  premature.  In  the  older  States,  public  sentiment  is 
rapidly  advancing  in  favor  of  the  legal  prevention  of  illiteracy. 
After  the  trial  of  a  compulsory  law  for  more  than  a  century,  Con- 
necticut has  just  reenacted  this  principle.  This  question  is  now 
more  prominently  before  the  American  people  than  ever  before. 


UNI7BRSIT71 

SHOULD   AMERICAN   YOUTH   BE   EDUCATED 
ABROAD? 

The  practice  of  educating  American  youtli  abroad  has  been 
steadily  growing  for  a  long  period.  But  the  present  year  has 
witnessed  an  unprecedented  exodus  of  our  youth  to  Europe. 
The  extraordinary  attractions  of  the  Vienna  Exposition  are  not 
the  only  explanation  of  this  great  migration.  The  fancied 
superiority  of  European  schools,  the  supposed  economy  of  liv- 
ing on  the  continent,  and  a  vague  ambition  for  ''foreign 
culture"  have  alike  contributed  to  this  result.  More  than  all, 
fashion  has  given  its  sanction  and  created  a  furor  in  favor  of 
European  education.  Example  is  contagious.  The  multitude 
now  departing  are  likely  to  draw  thousands  more.  Principals 
of  foreign  schools,  soon  to  arrive,  are  already  advertised  to 
leave  New  York  in  August  or  September  to  escort  the  pupils 
committed  to  their  care.  Their  circulars,  some  of  them  offen- 
sively pretentious,  are  sent  widely  over  this  country.  Resident 
agents  are  employed  to  push  their  schemes. 

The  discussion  of  this  subject  is  therefore  timely.  Connecti- 
cut cannot  render  a  better  service  to  her  own  schools  or  to  the 
country,  than  by  helping  to  check  a  fashion  which  practically 
disparages  our  own  institutions,  and  withdraws  the  sympathies 
of  those  who  would  otherwise  most  liberally  support  them. 

American  and  European  schools  have  their  distinctive  excel- 
lences, and  can  each  learn  much  from  the  other.  Of  late  the 
schools  of  Prussia  have  been  over-praised.  Though  justly 
lauded  by  Horace  Mann,  Professor  Stowe  and  others,  thirty 
years  ago,  they  do  not  retain  the  same  preeminence.  Rela- 
tively there  has  been  greater  progress  in  some  other  lands. 

The  Prussian  system,  though  of  acknowledged  excellence,  is 
in  some  measure  stereotyped.  A  just  pride  in  the  laurels  won, 
now  tends  towards  satisfaction  with  past  achievements.  Such 
complacency  does  not  foster  that  spirit  of  progress  and  improve- 
ment so  conspicuous  in  Austria  and  America.  The  commen- 
dations well  deserved  in  the  days  of  Dinter  no  longer  belong 
exclusively  or  specially  to  the  Prussians.  Stimulated,  indeed, 
by  their  illustrious  example  at  the  outset,  others  have  over- 

1 


6  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

taken  them  in  the  race.  These  remarks  apply  to  their  public 
school  system  rather  than  to  their  magnificent  "universities  and 
other  higher  institutions,  which  open  opportunities  for  the 
bi'oadest  culture  to  the  graduates  of  our  colleges,  especially  to 
those  in  training  for  professorships,  with  fixed  principles,  studi- 
ous habits,  and  disciplined  minds.  For  the  want  of  these 
requisites  many  American  students  fail  to  receive  substantial 
benefit,  even  from  the  German  universities.  Inadequate  prepa- 
ration and  application  make  those  grand  lecture  courses  com- 
paratively worthless  to  them.  Such  passive  absorption  is  not 
the  true  process  of  education.  But  aside  from  the  universities, 
the  so-called  golden  opportunities  of  continental  culture  have 
been  greatly  exaggerated. 

For  our  youth,  American  schools  are  better  than  European. 
To  send  our  boys  or  girls  away  to  foreign  boarding  schools  is 
a  great  mistake,  or  rather,  one  of  the  fashionable  follies  which 
is  just  now  having  its  day.  With  fashion  one  cannot  reason. 
I  do  not  object  that  this  fashion  is  costly  in  money,  for  that  is 
one  of  its  attractions,  but  costly  in  what  is  worth  vastly  more 
than  gold,  namely,  character  and  practical  culture.  This  fash- 
ion of  to-day,  experience  and  a  wiser  self-respect  will  surely 
rectify  when  the  comparative  results  of  the  two  systems  come 
to  be  better  understood.  The  fond  hopes  so  often  wrecked  in 
foreign  lands  will  at  least  serve  as  beacons  in  the  future.  It  is 
not  in  France  alone  that  a  moral  malaria  pervades  the  atmos- 
phere. The  example  of  other  cities  besides  Paris  and  Naples 
refutes  the  plausible  but  pernicious  aphorism  of  Burke,  that 
'^  vice  loses  half  its  evil  by  parting  with  all  its  grossness."  In 
these  luxurious  centres  a  voluptuous  refinement  veils  the  gross- 
est immorality  under  simulations  of  delicacy,  if  not  under  the 
sanctions  of  law,  and  licenses  vice  herself,  if  only  robed  in  the 
semblance  of  propriety.  A  thin  veneering  covers  the  foulest 
corruption.  To  offend  against  taste  is  worse  than  to  break  the 
ten  commandments,  and  vice  has  less  to  fear  than  vulgarity. 

If  parents  accompany  their  children  and  still  surround  them 
with  the  restraints  and  inspirations  of  home,  these  objections 
are  mainly  obviated.  The  great  advantage  of  foreign  travel  I 
freely  admit.  Personal  observations  abroad  may  happily  sup- 
plement  the   school,  remove   narrowness,   and   stimulate  the 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  7 

desire  for  knowledge.  There  is  some  sense  in  the  old  saying, 
"Drill  a  child  thoroughly  in  the  elements,  and  then  set  him  on 
a  horse  and  trot  him  round  the  world." 

In  the  German  schools  the  course  of  study  is  so  unlike  ours, 
the  subjects  and  naethods  so  peculiar,  and  the  processes  so  slow^ 
as  to  weary,  if  not  disgust  the  American  boy.  To  him  the 
school  rules  seem  odd,  if  not  arbitrary.  Many  American  boys 
I  found  there  ill  at  ease,  if  not  discontented,  grumbling  and 
homesick,  because,  they  said,  these  strange  methods  are  not  so 
well  fitted  to  serve  the  practical  ends  of  life,  and  meet  the  con- 
ditions of  success  in  America. 

In  philological  studies  and  researches,  in  the  refinements  of 
art,  in  music  and  in  manners,  European  schools  excel.  But 
this  linguistic  and  aesthetic  culture,  admirable  as  it  is,  poorly 
compensates  for  the  loss  of  a  more  practical  training,  and  for 
the  neglect  of  our  own  vernacular  and  literature,  too  common 
with  our  boys  educated  abroad.  These  exiles  return  too  often 
un- Americanized,  if  not  un-Christianized.  After  carefully  ob- 
serving both  processes  and  results,  with  large  numbers  educated 
abroad  and  at  home,  the  conviction  is  forced  upon  me  that  the 
thousands  of  our  youth  schooled  abroad  return  with,  an  educa- 
tion less  substantial  than  that  afforded  here,  and  what  is  far 
worse,  with  character  less  matured,  even  if  not  impaired. 

The  breadth  and  art,  the  elegance  and  refinement,  with  perhaps 
the  assumption  of  foreign  airs,  or  aping  of  European  customs, 
are  by  no  means  the  surest  conditions  of  success,  in  the  practical 
duties  and  stern  realities  of  American  life.  It  should  be  remem- 
bered, too,  that  laws,  customs,  manners  and  institutions  educate 
as  well  as  the  school.  Like  an  atmosphere,  this  influence  sur- 
rounds the  child  and  unconsciously  moulds  his  character.  This 
element,  healthful  and  invigorating  in  republics,  is  repressive 
in  monarchies,  where  you  witness  on  every  hand  an  obsequious- 
ness to  rank,  a  deference  to  usage,  an  unquestioning  submission 
to  mere  authority,  unfriendly  to  the  elasticity,  the  indepen- 
dence, and  still  more  to  the  aspirations  of  the  javenile  mind. 
The  gendarm.e  standing  at  every  comer  is  only  one  of  many 
reminders  that  there  is  always  near  you,  or  rather  over  you,  the- 
outstretched  arm  of  resistless  power.  The  incentives  and 
methods  employed  in  school  government  in  America  are  more 


8  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

healthful  and  stimulating  than  those  found  abroad,  where 
school  discipline  conforms  to  the  prevailing  political  ideas  and 
is  essentially  despotic.  The  military  spirit  is  now  dominant 
and  all-pervasive  in  Germany.  The  school  is  one  of  the 
appointed  agencies  for  diffusing  aristocratic  ideas  and  fortifying 
monarchical  institutions.  Education  naturally  conforms  to  the 
prevailing  political  sentiments.  Our  sj^stem  aims  at  the 
development,  protection,  and  prosperity  of  the  individual. 
There  the  State  is  always  the  central  figure.  With  us  the 
Government  is  for  the  people  as  well  as  of  the  people.  There 
the  people  are  for  the  Government,  and  the  children  are  taught 
that  they  belong  to  the  State,  somewhat  as  they  do  to  their 
parents. 

The  juvenile  mind,  pliant  and  docile,  yields  to  surrounding 
associations.  Political  freedom  favors  individual  independence 
and  manliness.  Our  youth  should  therefore  be  educated  as 
Americans,  and  be  well  grounded  in  American  ideas  and  prin- 
ciples. In  the  knowledge  of  men  and  things,  in  courage  and 
aspiration,  in  push  and  energy,  in  solid  utility,  in  the  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends,  Americanism  means  more  than  German- 
ism or  any  other  nationalism. 

To  profit  by  the  superior  scholarship  of  the  German  gymna- 
sium, the  full  course  should  be  mastered,  which  occupies  eight 
years.  A  partial  course  will  be  but  a  beginning  in  many 
branches,  with  the  completion  of  none.  The  American  boy 
needs  about  two  years  of  preparation,  especially  in  mastering 
the  German  language,  for  he  cannot  catch  the  spirit  of  the 
school  while  the  recitations  are  in  an  unknown  tongue. 

Among  the  valuable  results  of  such  a  ten-years'  course  may 
be  named,  1.  A  thorough  mastery  of  the  German  language, 
one  of  the  most  difficult  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  important 
of  modern  languages.  2.  The  most  thorough  training  in  the 
ancient  classics,  including  both  writing  and  speaking  Latin,  if 
not  Greek.  3.  Familiarity  with  German  history  and  literature, 
with  something  of  general  history.  4.  Besides  the  usual  ma- 
thematical studies,  prominence  is  given  to  drawing,  music  and 
"  manners.''  The  aesthetic  element  is  carefully  developed.  Ad- 
mitting, then,  the  excellence  of  this  instruction,  does  it  com- 
pensate for  the  want  of  home  influences  at  this  formative  period 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  9 

— from  eight  to  eighteea  years — when  character  is  largely 
moulded  and  fixed  ?  Then,  more  than  ever,  a  youth  needs 
the  impulses,  the  instructions  and  aspirations  that  cluster 
around  home,  kindred  and  friends. 

American  society  and  associations,  giving  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  our  modes  of  thought,  intercourse  and  influence,  are 
the  very  educational  forces  needed  by  the  American  student 
who  aspires  to  lead  or  control  public  sentiment.  The  best 
training  for  public  life  in  Germany  is  not,  of  course,  the  surest 
promise  of  success  here.  For  American  boys,  German  history 
is  disproportionably  prominent.  As  in  the  study  of  geography 
they  wisely  begin  with  the  school-house,  and  then  the  village 
or  city  where  they  live,  and  build  up  all  the  world  around  that 
centre,  so  all  the  historical  world  revolves  around  Germany  as 
the  centre.  In  connection  with  the  thorough  study  of  their 
own  annals,  love  of  country  is  most  thoroughly  and  ably  taught 
in  German  schools. 

These  manifold  agencies,  to  a  remarkable  degree,  develop 
the  noble  sentiment  of  devotion  to  Fatherland.  But  the  pat- 
riotism there  taught  is  so  intimately  associated  with  loyalty  to 
the  king,  that  it  is  inoperative  on  American  boys.  Discarding 
Csesarism,  these  inculcations  of  the  duty  of  homage  to  the 
emperor,  and  of  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  right  of  kings,  are 
foreign  to  them.  The  real  truth,  so  much  better  than  regal 
assumptions  and  royal  prerogatives,  they  do  not  learn,  and  so 
the  ties  are  not  formed  that  should  bind  them  to  their  native  land. 
Constantly  hearing  laudations  of  monarchical  governments,  and 
disparagements  of  free  institutions,  the  youth  exiled  at  ten 
years  of  age  do  not  learn  to  prize  and  love  their  native  land. 
The  magnificent  architecture,  the  grand  libraries,  art  galleries, 
churches,  cathedrals  and  palaces,  the  museums,  monuments 
and  triumphal  arches,  the  zoological  and  botanical  gardens, 
impress  their  tender  minds  with  such  a  glamour  that  they  come 
into  unconscious,  if  not  avowed  sympathy  with  this  deprecia- 
tion of  their  own  country,  and  are  virtually  de-nationalized. 

The  experience  of  American  colleges  is  believed  to  be  nearly 
uniform  as  to  the  superiority  in  the  qualification  of  candi- 
dates trained  at  home  over  our  youth  prepared  for  college 
abroad.      The  number  of  the  latter  class  is  relatively  smalL 


10  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

But  the  instances  of  eminent  success,  either  in  college  studies 
or  practical  life  on  the  part  of  American  boys,  chiefly  educated 
abroad,  are  rare  and  exceptional. 

It  is  plausibly  said  that  our  girls  and  boys  are  usually 
educated  abroad  in  private  boarding  schools  specially  adapted 
to  foreign  youth.  While  there  are  some  excellent  schools  of 
this  kind,  there  are  many  others  superficial  and  pretentious. 
The  public  schools  of  Grermany  are  greatly  superior  to  their 
private  institutions.  An  eminent  American  author,  with  the 
best  opportunities  of  observation,  says,  "  There  is  no  end  to  the 
swindling  and  pretence  on  the  part  of  boarding  schools  in 
France  and  Germany.*'  Says  another,  "  My  boy  was  swindled 
out  of  ten  years'  progress  in  a  boarding  school  abroad."  A 
prominent  gentleman  in  Washington  now  acknowledges  "  re- 
sults prove  that  sending  my  boy  three  years  to  Germany  was 
unwise."  An  artist  whose  tastes  and  business  favored  his  con- 
tinuing abroad,  where  he  had  spent  six  years,  and  became 
thoroughly  acquainted  with  European  methods  of  education, 
says,  "I  have  returned  to  America  for  the  sake  of  my  children." 
Similar  experiences  might  be  multiplied. 

On  such  a  question  as  this,  opinions  may  be  more  influential 
than  arguments.  Certainly  the  mature  judgiuent  of  our  most 
experienced  educators,  those  who  have  had  wide  opportunities 
for  observing  both  methods  and  results  at  home  and  abroad,  is 
entitled  to  special  consideration.  I  therefore  presented  this 
question  to  the  presidents  of  our  leading  colleges,  and  other 
eminent  educators  of  our  country,  requesting  their  views,  with 
liberty  to  print  them.  All  but  one  thus  addressed  have  replied, 
substantially  endorsing  my  own  convictions.  Their  position, 
culture  and  experience  give  weight  to  the  opinions  expressed, 
especially  as  some  of  them  were  once  advocates  of  foreign  edu- 
cation. The  opinions  of  such  men  must  command  attention. 
Indeed  they  comprise  the  most  authoritative  verdict  ever  ren- 
dered on  this  subject. 

The  letters  appended  are  given  in  the  order  of  date,  omitting 
only  personal  allusions.  Though  differing  in  their  points  of 
observation  and  in  the  objections  named,  they  all  concur  in 
the  same  general  conclusions.  The  following  summary  em- 
braces the  more  prominent  points  urged  : 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  11 

1.  All  agree  that  the  elementary  and  preparatory  studies 
should  be  pursued  at  home. 

2.  Nearly  all  concur  in  the  view  that  the  collegiate  course 
also  should  be  completed  in  our  own  country. 

3.  There  is  a  general  agreement  in  favor  of  first  completing 
the  ordinary  professional  course  in  our  own  institutions. 

4.  Many  favor  a  post-graduate  course  for  the  fuller  pursuit  of 
certain  specialties  in  some  of  the  great  universities  of  Europe. 

5.  For  the  elementary  and  undergraduate  studies,  the  exper- 
iments of  mixing  American  and  foreign  systems  of  education 
fail  oftener  than  they  succeed.  The  gain  is  but  a  fraction  com- 
pared with  the  loss.  "  It  is  surely  to  save  at  the  spigot  and  let 
put  at  the  bung-liole." 

6.  Many  cases  are  cited  of  persons  who  now  deplore  the 
mistake  of  their  juvenile  exile  abroad,  and  their  want  of  early 
training  in  incipient  citizenship  and  the  practical  lessons  ot 
American  life.  "  Such  facts  are  attested  by  the  sad  experience 
of  hundreds  of  American  families." 

7.  One  correspondent  characterizes  the  class  of  persons  de- 
scribed as  cosmopolitan  as  "  an  unhappy,  useless  and  sterile 
breed ;  "  and  another  speaks  of  them  as  a  "  hybrid  class,  neither 
Europeans  nor  Americans,  ill  adapted  to  practical  duties  in 
either  hemisphere,  out  of  adjustment  with  our  society,  and  out 
of  sympathy  with  our  simple  American  life." 

8.  Superintendent  Fallows  cites  the  testimony  of  the  leading 
German  educators  among  us.  While  they  complain  of  certain 
defects  in  our  system,  they  are  emphatic  in  saying,  '■'  American 
schools  in  processes  and  results  are  the  best  for  American  chil- 
dren." 

9.  Some  affirm  that  competent  Americans  succeed  better  in 
teaching  modern  languages  than  foreign  professors.  Though 
knowing  less  of  the  language  taught,  they  understand  better 
the  difficulties  to  be  overcome,  and  the  way  to  meet  them. 

10.  American  teachers  show  more  tact  and  skill  in  stimu- 
lating and  controlling  American  boys.  Some  speak  of  the 
want  of  adaptation  and  of  success  on  the  part  of  foreign  teachers 
in  American  schools  and  colleges  in  the  control  of  their  classes. 

11.  Those  who  have  been  abroad  from  five  to  eight  years  in 
their  preparatory  course  are  usually  found  far  behind  their  old 
school  associates  in  their  studies. 


12  EDUCATION  ABKOAD. 

12.  The  "  code  of  honor  "  prevalent  in  Grerman  universities 
is  deprecated.  The  marks  of  the  duel,  which  some  American 
students  have  brought  from  Heidelberg  and  other  German 
universities,  are  not  here  held  as  badges  of  honor. 

13.  The  lecture-room  system  "is  ill  adapted  to  ordinary  stu- 
dents, however  profitable  to  advanced  scholars." 

14.  The  constant  advocacy  of  monarchical  government,  and 
disparagement  of  republican  institutions,  together  with  the  dis- 
plays and  pomp  of  royalty,  tend  to  denationalize  and  un- 
Americanize  the  susceptible  youth  resident  abroad  from  the 
age  of  ten  to  twenty  years.  The  statesmen  of  Europe  are 
experts  in  the  use  of  pageants,  displays  and  amusements. 
These  specious  proofs  of  princely  munificence,  and  of  regal  sym- 
pathy with  popular  wants,  are  really  efi'ective  forces  to  develop 
the  loyalty  of  the  masses,  if  not  to  repress  thought  and  paralyze 
efforts  for  liberty. 

16.  National  sentiments,  traditions  and  histories,  as  well  as 
social  sympathies,  strongly  mould  the  plastic  mind  of  childhood. 
Our  exiled  youth  not  only  lose  these  needed  lessons,  but  also 
those  healthful  local  attachments  which  should  bind  them  to 
the  homestead,  the  neighborhood,  the  town  or  city,  and  the 
State. 

16.  The  special  facilities  for  studying  modem  languages 
abroad  are  generally  conceded.  Some,  however,  contend  that 
the  mastery  of  the  principles  and  philosophy  of  a  language  by 
the  study  of  its  grammar  and  lexicon  gives  a  higher  discipline 
than  the  art  of  speaking  acquired  merely  by  conversation. 
Such  fluency  of  speech  comes  by  imitation — is  easily  gotten 
and  soon  forgotten,  unless  retained  by  practice.  The  power  to 
read  German  authors  is  a  higher  attainment  than  the  ability  to 
use  glibly  the  fewer  phrases  and  smaller  vocabulary  recurring 
in  ordinary  conversation. 

17.  The  methods  and  motives  of  school  government  are  more 
healthful  and  inspiring  at  home  than  abroad.  The  "  tunding,'* 
caning  and  flogging,  so  common  in  England,  are  barbarous. 
The  discipline  in  European  schools  is  essentially  arbitrary  and 
despotic.  The  military  spirit  is  pervasive,  and  ill  suited  to 
American  youth.  The  schools,  instead  of  holding  their  grad- 
uates with  pleasant  memories,  are  often  referred  to  with  regret. 

f  not  disgust. 


EDUCATION   ABKOAD.  13 

18.  The  cheapness  of  living  was  once  an  attraction  to  Grerman 
schools,  but  the  late  Prussian  war  and  the  lavish  expenditures 
of  some  Americans  have  combined  to  advance  prices,  so  that 
economy  no  longer  invites  to  European  schools.  To  some  their 
greater  cost  has  only  made  them  seem  the  more  aristocratic  and 
attractive. 

19.  The  moral  risks  incurred  by  our  youth  in  foreign  board- 
ing schools  are  great. 

20.  Conceit  is  too  often  fostered  with  boys  inclined  to  accept 
the  semblance  for  the  substance.  ''It  sounds  large  to  say, 
'I  was  educated  at  Berlin.'"  Modesty  is  the  characteristic  of 
true  scholarship.  While  the  genuine  student  is  unharmed,  the 
very  young  or  superficial  may  become  unduly  inflated,  and 
"get  a  foolish  and  hurtful  taint  of  foreign  airs." 

21.  The  advantages  of  foreign  travel  after  the  requisite  pre- 
paratory studies  are  fully  conceded  by  all  and  urged  by  many. 

22.  Last  and  least,  though  by  no  means  an  unimportant  ob- 
jection, is  the  cost  of  foreign  education.  The  average  number 
of  Americans  visiting  or  resident  in  Europe  is  over  fifty  thou- 
sand, and  the  present  season  still  larger,  by  reason  of  the  Inter- 
national Exposition.  The  number  at  school  is  now  greater 
than  ever.  The  export  and  appreciation  of  gold  and  corre- 
sponding depreciation  of  our  currency  are  sensibly  affected  by 
this  mania  for  European  education. 


Amherst  College^  2d  April,  1873. 
Hon.  B.  G.  Northeop. 

My  Bear  Sir : — I  have  read  your  article  entitled,  **  Should 
American  youth  be  educated  abroad  ?"  with  great  interest.  1 
agree  with  you  generally  in  the  views  you  have  so  appropriately 
expressed.  As  a  general  rule,  American  youth  should  be  edu- 
cated essentially  in  America.  If  they  would  be  thorough 
scholars,  let  them  go  through  the  entire  preparatory  and  colle- 
giate courses  at  home.  Let  them  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  German  and  French  languages,  as  far  as  may  be  possible, 
in  a  country  where  these  languages  are  not  the  vernacular, 
and  make  efficient  progress  in  the  professional  specialities  to 
which  they  are  intending  to  devote  their  lives.  They  can  then 
go  abroad,  and  spending  a  portion  of  their  time  in  travel  and  a 


14  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

portion  in  some  manly  study  at  the  great  universities  of  Europe, 
they  will  find  their  labor  renumerative,  their  minds  enriched, 
and  their  higher  lives,  it  may  be  hoped,  not  injured.  A  stu- 
dent, it  is  believed,  thus  prepared,  can  obtain  more  valuable 
knowledge  and  inspiration  in  a  few  months,  than  without  a 
broad  and  solid  American  ground  work  of  study  he  would 
probably  do  in  as  many  years.  And  what  is  better,  if  he  should 
happen  to  think  himself  into  the  thick  German  fogs,  his  well 
trained  American  practical  sense  will  be  likely  to  bring  him 
out  again,  when  otherwise  he  might  live  in  the  cloud-lands  of 
obscurity,  on  some  subjects,  all  the  rest  of  his  days,  and  never 
know  the  difference  between  luminous  vapor  and  sunlight. 
Yours  truly, 

W.  A.  STEAENS, 

President  of  Amherst  College. 


Harvard  University,  ) 

Cambridge^  Mass.,  bth  April,  1873.  \ 

My  Dear  Sir : — I  should  want  to  have  an  American  boy  who 
was  destined  to  pass  his  adult  life  in  Germany  educated  at  a 
German  gymnasium,  and  a  German  university.  For  similar 
reasons,  I  should  want  to  have  a  German  boy  who  was  to  spend 
his  life  in  the  United  States  educated  at  American  schools, 
and  in  an  American  college,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  our  educa- 
tional institutions  of  all  grades  are  inferior  to  the  German. 
Experiments  in  mixing  the  two  systems  of  education  for  the 
same  child  have  seemed  to  me  to  fail  very  much  often er  than 
they  succeeded.  To  lose  home  and  church  and  country  for 
years,  for  the  sake  of  gaining  better  teaching  in  Latin,  Greek, 
natural  history,  and  mathematics,  is  surely  to  save  at  the  spigot 
and  let  out  at  the  bung-hole,  so  far  as  the  formation  of  charac- 
ter is  concerned.  Yonng  Americans  may  wisely  make  short 
excursions  to  Eui-ope,  for  the  sake  of  learning  the  languages, 
acquiring  some  knowledge  of  art,  and  enlarging  their  interests. 
Young  men  of  mature  mind  and  trained  powers  of  observation 
may  profitably  spend  some  time  abroad  when  their  education 
at  home  has  been  finished.  But  to  send  American  boys  or 
girls  to  European  schools  for  long  periods  is,  I  believe,  a  great 
risk.     My  observation  of  the  class  of  persons  described  as  cos- 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  15 

mopolitan   has  led  me  to  think  them,  as  a  rule,  an  unhappy, 
useless  and  sterile  breed. 

The  most  important  things  in  education  are  not  school  and 
university  programmes,  but  rather  home  affections,  young  com- 
panionships, natural  scenery  and  climate,  national  customs  and 
manners,  hereditary  beliefs  and  the  prevailing  mental  atmos- 
phere. That  education  seems  to  me  a  failure  which  does  not 
cherish  and  strengthen  the  love  of  country.  Prolonged  resi 
dence  abroad  in  youth,  before  the  mental  fibre  is  solidified, 
and  the  mind  has  taken  its  tone,  has  a  tendency  to  enfeeble  the 
love  of  country,  and  to  impair  the  foundations  of  public  spirit 
in  the  individual  citizen.  This  pernicious  influence  is  indefin- 
able, but  none  the  less  real.  In  a  strong  nation,  the  education 
of  the  young  is  indigenous  and  national.  It  is  a  sign  of  imma- 
turity or  decrepitude  when  a  nation  has  to  import  its  teachers, 
or  send  abroad  its  scholars. 

These  are  my  ideas,  very  hastily  expressed,  on  the  subject  to 
which  you  invite  my  attention. 

Very  truly  yours, 

CHARLES  W.  ELIOT, 

Presidernt  of  Harvard  University. 


Williamstown^  April  ^th^  1873. 
Dear  Sir: — We  are  not  to  undervalue  what  has  been  done  in 
the  old  world,  but  it  is  not  the  office  of  the  new  to  copy  it. 
Availing  ourselves  of  it  as  far  as  possible,  we  are  to  absorb  and 
reproduce  it  in  new  forms  and  under  better  conditions.  This 
work  is  well  begun.  We  have  a  new  mould  for  society,  cast  on 
principles  different  from  any  tried  heretofore  ;  and  the  question 
is  whether  the  material  can  be  conformed  to  the  mould.  Look- 
ing at  the  vast  foreign  and  refractory  current  flowing  into  it, 
many  have  been  led  to  doubt,  but  the  general  feeling  has  been 
hopeful.  This  may  well  be  if  we  are  true  to  ourselves.  But 
failing  of  this,  conceding  virtually  the  superiority,  on  the  whole, 
of  the  old  and  the  foreign,  and  seeking  to  reproduce  them,  we 
shall  neither  be  ourselves  nor  anybody  else.  What  we  have  to 
do  is,  without  conceit  or  over-sensitiveness  to  the  opinions  of 


16  EDUCATIOK  ABEOAD. 

Others,  to  respect  ourselves,  to  do  what  we  can  for  our  own  in- 
stitutions, and  to  bide  our  time. 

Of  course  there  will  be  exceptions,  but  in  my  opinion  a 
higher  tone  of  character,  greater  usefulness,  and  more  happiness 
will  generally,  and  very  generally,  be  secured  by  an  education, 
till  fixed  principles  shall  be  formed,  under  the  inspiration  and 
formative  power  of  our  own  history,  and  institutions,  and 
hopes.  Truly  yours, 

MAEK  HOPKINS, 

Ex-President  Williams  College. 


New  Yo*rk  University,      ) 
Aj^ril  10th,  1873.  j 

Dear  Sir : — The  only  advantage  Europe  has  over  America  in 
the  matter  of  education  is  in  her  libraries  and  galleries.  But 
these  can  be  used  profitably  only  by  the  advanced  scholar. 
The  average  youth  of  twelve  to  twenty  years  old  could  gain 
but  little,  if  any,  additional  benefit  in  his  studies  from  all  the 
libraries  and  galleries  of  Europe  combined. 

Per  contra  :  America  offers  advantages  unknown  in  Europe, 
unless  we  except  Great  Britain,  to  wit,  moral  atmosphere  that 
stimulates  activity,  a  course  of  preferment  open  alike  to  all,  and 
in  teachers  and  methods  a  sound  common  sense,  by  which  last 
I  mean  a  quickness  to  perceive  the  right  relation  of  things, 
without  which  mere  learning  is  a  clumsy  and  useless  load.  In 
continental  Europe  these  conditions  are  wanting.  Prestige 
and  prejudice  repress  free  development,  privilege  regulates 
preferment,  and  prescription  leads  learning  into  very  narrow 
and  crooked  ways.  Learning  in  America  is  not  so  minute  as 
in  Europe,  but  it  is  far  more  correct.  We  are  untrammeled 
by  old  obligations  and  compromises,  and  hence  can  go  whither 
truth  leads  without  fear  of  side  issues.  I  speak  of  learning  in 
general.  Particular  branches  of  research  are  undoubtedly  pur- 
sued farther  abroad  than  here,  but  those  belong  to  the  man 
after  twenty  and  not  to  the  boy  under  twenty,  if  he  is  to  be  prop- 
erly educated.  And  even  in  these  branches,  it  is  only  the  statistical 
element,  (the  collections  of  facts  by  elaborate  industry,)  that  I 
would  value  in  European  institutions  above  our  own.     For  the 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  17 

logical  element^  the  reasoning  upon  facts  and  reaching  wise  con- 
clusions, commend  me  to  a  healthy  American  mind  far  before 
the  learned  mind  of  continental  Europe. 

These  are  my  reasons,  briefly  and  crudely  stated  in  my  hurry, 
for  advising  American  parents  to  keep  their  sons  at  home,  for  the 
best  education,  until  twenty  years  of  age,  and  then^  if  a  young 
man  wishes  to  pursue  any  special  branch  of  study  as  his  life- 
work,  let  him  go  to  Europe  for  the  benefit  of  its  libraries  and 
galleries.  Most  of  the  movement  to  Europe  for  education  is 
the  result  of  two  false  causes,  a  strutting  fashion  and  parental 
weakness.  It  sounds  large  to  say  "  I  was  educated  at  Berlin," 
and  parents,  who  are  so  largely  governed  by  their  children, 
yield  to  the  son's  solicitations,  and  perhaps  are  themselves  quite 
pleased  to  say  to  their  neighbors,  "  Our  son  is  attending  lec- 
tures at  Bonn  and  Heidelberg." 

I  have  yet  to  see  the  first  Europe-educated  American  youth 
who  ever  gained  any  glory  from  his  European  experience. 
Yours  very  truly, 

HOWARD  CROSBY, 

President  of  the  New  York  University. 


Ann  Arbor,  April  11,  1873. 
My  Dear  Sir, — I  fully  concur  in  the  views  you  express  in 
the  article  you  send  me.  I  have  had  frequent  occasions  to 
present  to  parents  substantially  the  same  arguments  against 
sending  children  abroad  for  their  education.  As  a  rule,  in  my 
opinion,  students  should  finish  their  collegiate  education  at 
home,  before  repairing  to  foreign  institutions  of  learning.  In 
most  cases  it  is  best  for  them  to  complete  their  professional 
studies  before  going  abroad. 

The  reasons  for  this  opinion  are  so  clearly  set  forth  by  you, 
that  I  need  not  dwell  upon  them.  I  am  sure  that  you  are 
doing  a  great  service  to  our  youth  and  to  our  country,  in  cor- 
recting the  prevalent  errors  upon  this  subject.  I  shall  look 
with  great  interest  for  your  fuller  discussion  of  the  topic. 
Yours  truly, 

JAMES  B.  ANGELL, 

President  of  Michigan  University. 

'V^  OF  THB*^. 

;UNI7ERSIT7l 


18  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

Atlanta,  Ga.,  April  lUA,  1873. 
Dear  Sir, — The  fashion  of  sending  the  youtli  of  the  country 
abroad  to  be  educated  had  not  prevailed  to  any  general  extent 
in  the  south  before  the  late  war,  and,  since  that  time,  our 
people  have  been  without  the  means  to  follow  the  fashion  ;  so 
that  we  are  almost  entirely  without  experience  on  the  sub- 
ject. I  have  read  your  article  sent  me,  and  am  well  convinced 
that  the  general  views  therein  presented  are  sound.  While  I 
have  met  with  but  a  very  small  number  of  our  own  people 
who  had  received  their  educational  training  abroad,  I  have 
very  frequently  been  brought  in  contact  with  foreign  teachers 
and  professors.  I  have  never  known  one  of  these  who  had 
ever  attained  to  a  high  measure  of  success  as  an  instructor.  A 
number  that  I  have  known  have  been  men  of  very  great  learn- 
ing ;  but  the  social  and  political  influences  that  had  been 
brought  to  bear  upon  them,  and  the  shape  which  their  charac- 
ters had  taken  from  their  surroundings  in  the  formative  period, 
seemed  to  disqualify  them  from  finding  access  to  youth  reared 
under  influences,  in  almost  all  respects,  entirely  diverse.  In 
their  little  college  communities  they  bore  the  reputation  of 
possessing  learning  without  the  ability  to  turn  it  to  practical 
avail  in  imparting  instruction  to  others.  I  may  say,  further, 
that  I  have  never  known  one  of  these  foreign  professors  who 
had  the  power  to  control  American  boys.  They  were  not 
dreaded  by  the  idle,  the  merely  mischievous  or  the  vicious,  and 
their  lecture  rooms  have  often  been  simply  theaters  of  disorder. 
It  seems  to  me  that  the  same  want  of  power  to  instruct  and 
to  control  would,  to  some  extent,  be  encountered  by  our  youth 
transplanted  to  a  foreign  soil  and  placed  under  foreign  instruc- 
tors. We  all  know  that  the  foreign  universities  are  in  advance 
of  our  best  institutions,  and  present  facilities  not  to  be  enjoyed 
here.  The  lecture  system,  however,  which  they  follow,  is 
adapted  to  men,  capable,  to  some  extent  at  least,  of  making 
independent  investigations,  and  not  to  boys  to  whom,  up  to  a 
certain  period,  the  drill  of  text-book  recitation  is  indispensable. 
I  must  say  with  you,  then,  that  while  these  higher  advantages, 
in  exceptional  cases,  are  desirable,  let  those  of  our  youth  who 
go  abroad  to  enjoy  them  leave  us  with  minds  sufficiently 
matured,  and  with  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  tongue  spoken. 


EDUCATION    ABROAD.  19 

to  profit  by  them  ;  and  with  moral  principles  sufficiently  estab- 
lished to  resist  any  adverse  influences  that  may  be  brought  to 
bear  upon  them. 

Kespectfully  yours, 

GUSTAVUS  J.  OKR, 

State  School  Commissioner, 


Providence^  April  12,  1873. 

Dear  Sir, — You  ask  my  opinion  upon  the  question,  "Should 
American  youth  be  educated  abroad?"  An  answer  to  this 
question  presupposes,  perhaps,  a  more  thorough  acquaintance 
with  foreign  schools  than  I  possess ;  I,  therefore,  speak  with 
diffidence.  But  from  such  limited  personal  inspection  of  for- 
eign schools  as  I  have  had  occasion  to  make,  and  from  the 
observed  results  of  training  in  the  cases  of  youths  who  have 
been  educated  wholly,  or  in  part,  in  them,  my  impression  is 
decidedly  unfavorable  to  sending  young  men  abroad  for  ele- 
mentary instruction.  And  by  elementary  instruction  I  mean  all 
the  studies  which  precede  and  constitute  the  college  course, 
as  usually  pursued  in  this  country. 

The  instruction  in  our  own  schools  may  not  be  more  exact 
than  in  the  foreign,  but  the  drill  seems  to  me  to  be  more  thor- 
ough. It  seems  to  be  more  effective  and  better  adapted  to  the 
habits  and  genius  of  American  youth.  It  is  my  impression 
also  that  with  us  instruction  on  the  same  subject  has,  if  I  may 
so  say,  more  amplitude  than  with  them.  Its  historic,  scientific 
and  practical  relations  are  more  fully  developed.  1  speak 
now,  of  course,  of  our  best  preparatory  schools  and  colleges. 

I  know  of  only  one  special  advantage  of  studjdng  abroad  ; — 
and  that  is  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  some  degree  of  flu- 
ency in  speaking  a  foreign  tongue.  I  limit  the  advantage  to 
speaking,  for  to  my  mind  it  is  far  from  being  clear  that  the 
grammar  and  idioms  and  critical  uses  of  the  language  ma}^  not 
be  as  well  acquired  here  as  there.  It  is  also  to  be  remarked 
that  fluency  of  speaking  in  a  foreign  language  is  often  the 
result  of  imitation, — of  readily  catching  sounds  by  the  ear, — 
without  any  knowledge  of  its  principles,  and  is  of  little  use  for 
any  other  purpose  than  speaking.     Many  a  child  returns  from 


20  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

a  few  years  residence  abroad  with  an  enviable  fluency  in  speak- 
ing a  foreign  tongue,  wliich  is  lost  in  less  time  than  it  was 
acquired. 

But  admitting  that  in  acquiring  a  language  there  is  a  great 
advantage  in  a  foreign  residence,  I  think  that  this  is  more  than 
counterbalanced  by  the  want  of  that  thorough  training  which 
stimulates,  and  strengthens  and  develops  the  intellectual 
powers. 

I  say  nothing  here  of  the  tendency  of  foreign  education  to 
engender  in  the  minds  of  young  men  ideas  inimical  to  the 
genius  of  republican  institutions,  and  subversive  of  that  Prot- 
estant faith  which  we  hold  so  dear.  I  say  nothing  in  relation 
to  the  imminent  peril  to  good  morals  and  good  habits  which 
besets  the  pathway  of  an  immature  and  inexperienced  youth  in 
a  foreign  city.  It  is,  however,  a  consideration  which  must  not 
be  overlooked  in  a  system  of  education. 

The  proper  time,  in  my  opinion,  to  seek  instruction  abroad 
is  after  the  completion  of  the  collegiate  course  at  home.  For 
professional  studies  in  philology  and  science,  the  schools  of 
France  and  Germany,  no  doubt,  offer,  at  present,  advantages 
not  to  be  obtained  elsewhere.  I  trust,  however,  that  this  con- 
cession is  only  temporary.  There  is  surely  no  reason  in  the 
nature  of  the  case  why  the  schools  of  America,  with  their 
rapid  growth,  should  not,  in  the  early  future,  rival  the  schools 
of  the  most  advanced  nation, 

I  am  yours  very  truly, 

ALEXIS  CASWELL, 

Ex- President  Brown  University, 


University  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  ) 
Columbia^  Mo.^  April  12,  1873.  j 

•  Dear  Sir^ — I  concur  with  you  in  QYerj  sentence  and  senti- 
ment which  you  utter  as  to  the  inexpediency  of  sending  our 
youth  abroad  for  education.  It  is  worse  than  folly.  The  ten- 
dency in  this  direction  ought  to  be  checked — not  merely  as  to 
children,  but  even  as  to  college  graduates.  In  half  the 
instances  with  which  I  have  been  conversant,  these  latter  have 
been  injured  not  only  in  their  morale^  but  otherwise,  by  resi- 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  21 

dence  in  foreign  universities.  I  do  not  wish  to  say  there  are 
no  instances  of  great  benefit ;  this  will  be  the  case  to  the  high 
scholar,  the  thorough  student,  the  young  man  with  formed 
habits,  moral  and  intellectual. 

I  have  at  this  time  a  daughter  in  Germany,  there  for  purposes 
of  culture.  But  in  the  first  place  she  is  twenty -two  years  old  ; 
she  was  a  thorough  Latin  and  German  scholar  when  she  went 
out  I  took  extraordinary  pains  to  surround  her  with  favor- 
able circumstances,  placing  her  at  first  in  the  old  Lutheran 
town  of  Merburg,  where  she  would  see  unmixed  German  life 
and  hear  no  word  of  English,  then  under  Prof  Otto  at  Heidel- 
berg, afterwards  tarrying  in  Dresden,  Berlin,  Leipsic,  and  now 
under  Prof.  Otto  Feder  at  Darmstadt.  I  would  not  think  of 
sending  abroad  a  younger  son  or  daughter. 

The  old  cry  was,  "  America  to  be  ruled  by  Americans ;"  still 
more  must  Americans  be  educated  in  America  and  by  Ameri- 
cans. We  must  bring  up  our  institutions,  the  literary  and  pro- 
fessional, scientific  and  practical,  to  the  first  standard  of  the 
world.  When  a  young  man  has  had  the  full  advantage  of  our 
institutions  of  highest  education,  let  him  go  abroad,  if  he  sees 
fit.  A  residence  in  the  Imperial  University  at  Peking  would 
do  him  good,  as  enlarging  his  views  of  our  common  humanity. 

Now,  even  in  regard  to  men  preparing  themselves  for  college 
professorships,  I  have  found  them  returning  with  so  many 
impractical  and  impracticable  notions  of  education,  that  I  con- 
fess I  should  not  select  a  professor  simply  on  the  ground  of  resi- 
dence in  a  foreign  university,  over  the  candidate  thoroughly 
trained  in  American  institutions. 

We  have  an  example  of  another  kind  now  in  our  university. 
He  is  a  young  man  of  twenty-three.  He  prepared  for  college  at 
Exeter,  New  Hampshire.  He  went  from  Exeter  to  school  at  Lau- 
sanne, Switzerland.  It  is  his  regret  now  that  he  did  not  at  once 
go  to  Harvard  or  Yale,  or  some  American  college.  He  is  a  man- 
of  ability,  but  his  education  abroad  dissipated  rather  than  concen 
trated  his  studies  and  his  habits  of  study. 

Information  is  needed  to  correct  the  evil.  It  has  grown  to 
be  one  of  magnitude.  When  our  people  understand  the  mat- 
ter, they  will  act  accordingly. 


22  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

I  cannot  withliold  another  case.  This  last  summer,  a  young 
man  called  to  see  me,  of  as  fine  physique  as  I  ever  saw,  over 
six  feet  High,  broad  chest,  well-proportioned  ;  his  face  was  terri- 
bly scarred,  so  much  so  that  I  was  induced  to  make  enquiry. 
I  really  supposed  he  had  been  almost  cut  to  pieces  in  the  bat- 
tles of  our  civil  war.  But  the  gentleman  introducing  him, 
said,  "  0,  no,  these  are  the  marks  of  Heidelberg,  where  he  has 
resided  a  couple  of  years."  I  afterward  learned  that  he  main- 
tained the  honor  of  American  prowess  in  the  university,  and 
was  the  most  celebrated  swordsman  in  all  Heidelberg,  and  that 
all  American  travelers  were  sure  to  be  congratulated  on  their 
powerful  countryman,  and  that  never,  but  for  a  short  time,  was 
his  position  questioned,  and  that  by  a  giant-like  Eussian,  but 
even  over  him  he  finally  triumphed,  but  not  until  after  receiv- 
ing wounds  the  scars  of  which  will  always  remain.  I  cannot 
say  how  many  American  students  win  victories  of  this  kind. 

My  brave  Kentuckian  has  settled  down  in  Leavenworth,  and 
promises  to  make  an  excellent  citizen  ;  but  how  much  Heidel- 
berg did  for  him  in  the  way  of  scholarly  attainment,  neither 
himself  nor  others  are  able  exactly  to  see. 
I  am  very  truly  yours, 

DANIEL  BEAD, 

President  of  the  State  University. 


Office  of  Supt.  of  Public  Insteuction,  [ 
St.  Paul,  Minn.,  April  12th,  1873.         ) 

Dear  Sir^ — ^I  have  read  with  much  interest  what  you  say 
upon  the  subject  of  sending  American  youths  abroad  to  be 
educated.  I  regard  your  views  as  sound.  It  is  a  matter  upon 
which  I  have  bestowed  much  thought.  The  conclusions  to 
which  I  came,  long  since,  coincide  substantially  with  yours.  It 
seems  to  me  that  every  true-hearted  American,  having  in  view 
the  best  interests  6f  his  country,  must  come  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion. There  can  be  nothing  so  vital  to  the  prosperity  and  pros- 
pective perpetuity  of  our  government  and  free  institutions  as 
the  matter  of  giving  our  sons  a  true  American  education.  By 
this  I  mean  that  the  course  of  study  and  training  should  be 
adapted  to  impress  on  the  minds  of  American  boys  the  value 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  23 

of  republican  institutions,  the  dignity  of  American  citizenship, 
and  the  responsibility  connected  with  that  citizenship.  In 
my  judgment,  the  instruction  our  boys  receive  in  a  foreign 
country  is  very  poorly  calculated  to  accomplish  these  results.. 

Despotisms  educate  their  subjects  in  such  a  manner  as  will 
perpetuate  power  in  the  hands  of  the  executive  head  and  the 
favored  few,  and  republics  should  have  their  citizens  educated 
to  enjoy  and  perpetuate  free  institutions.  It  is  true,  that 
although  natural  philosophy  and  the  mathematics  must  be 
taught  in  the  same  manner  in  Russia  and  Prussia  as  in  the 
United  States,  the  general  scope  of  education  must,  like  the  end 
to  be  attained  by  it,  be  entirely  different.  German  youths, 
while  they  study  the  sciences  as  they  are  taught  in  the  United 
States,  must  be  instructed  in  a  different  literature,  and  disci- 
plined for  a  different  career  from  that  of  an  American.  One 
is  to  be  the  obedient  subject  of  a  power  which,  to  him,  is 
divine,  and  which  it  would  be  criminal  in  him  to  attempt  to 
subvert  or  change.  The  other  is  likewise  to  be  obedient,  but  to 
laws  enacted  by  the  people,  and  to  authority  emanating  directly 
from  the  governed.  One  is  to  be  a  responsible .  citizen,  the 
other  an  irresponsible  subject ;  and  as  different  as  are  the  duties 
which  each  is  to  be  called  upon  to  perform,  so  different  should 
be  the  general  training  to  which  they  should  be  severally  sub- 
jected to  enable  them  honorably  to  discharge  them. 

If,  then,  we  would  have  a  true  American  loyalty  stamped 
upon  the  hearts  of  our  youths  by  the  necessary  influences  and 
instruction  so  that  they  will  glory  in  it,  not  only  in  their  own 
country,  but  when  duty  calls  them  into  foreign  lands,  under 
the  very  shadow  of  royalty,  we  must  provide  for  their  educa- 
tion at  home.  They  must  be  taught  that  they  are  born  to  an 
excellent  inheritance,  and  that  it  is  a  glory  to  be  an  upright, 
intelligent  citizen  of  the  United  States.  They  must  be  in- 
structed in  lo3^alty  to  their  country,  to  venerate  its  noble  con- 
stitution, and  to  regard  as  enemies  of  liberty  those  that  would 
destroy  it.  If  these  results  are  to  be  secured,  our  young  men 
must  not  be  brought  under  influences  that  will  produce  results 
directly  contrary  to  these. 

I  am,  with  great  respect,  truly  yours, 
H.  B.  WILSON, 

State  Swperintendent  of  Schools. 


24  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

Cambridge^  April  lith,  1873. 

Dear  Sir, — The  subject  of  educating  American  youth  in 
foreign  schools,  of  which  jou  have  so  ably  treated,  is  not  a 
new  one  to  my  mind,  nor  can  I  hesitate  in  the  conclusion  to 
which  I  have  come  upon  the  question.  Whether  I  test  it  by  a 
course  of  d  priori  reasoning,  or  form  a  judgment  from  what  has 
fallen  under  my  own  observation,  I  am  alike  clear  in  my  con- 
viction that  the  measure  is  unwise  and  impolitic.  But  I  rest 
my  objection  upon  a  single  point.  I  do  not  pretend  to  draw  a 
(C(^mparison  between  the  European  schools  and  our  own  as 
ttraining  institutions  in  the  languages  and  other  preparatory 
studies  for  admission  to  college.  I  do  not  under-estimate  the 
advantages  of  acquiring  a  familiar  knowledge  of  other  modern 
languages,  or  the  superior  facility  of  doing  this  in  the  countries 
where  such  languages  are  the  vernacular. 

I  am  ready  to  go  further  and  assume  that  such  of  our 
young  men  as  are  able  to  withstand  the  temptations  and  escape 
the  pitfalls  which  are  in  the  way  of  every  young  man  who  is 
removed  from  home  influences,  and  the  restraints  which  the 
habits  <of  society  exert  over  him,  easily  acquires  broad  and 
liberail  views  of  the  world,  and  loses  much  of  the  narrow  and 
rigid  habits  of  thought  which  home  education  is  apt  to  foster, 
till  these  are  worn  off  by  the  discipline  of  later  life.  And  I 
am  willing  to  confess  to  an  attainment,  by  many  of  these,  of  an 
ease  and  self  assurance,  which  are  often  the  fruits  of  intelligent 
foreign  travel.  But  these,  after  all,  are  not  in  themselves 
education.  They  may  be  the  fruits  of  culture,  which  are  more 
seeming  than  real,  so  far  as  intellectual  development  is  con- 
cerned. 

I  understand  your  enquiry  relates  to  such  youth  as  are  pass- 
ing through  the  stages  of  a  proper  school  education,  not 
embracing  that  of  the  university  or  professional  school.  My 
remarks,  therefore,  do  not  relate  to  these  latter  classes.  What, 
then,  is  the  purpose  and  object  of  educating  the  youth  of  a 
eountry,  and  especially  of  a  country  like  ours?  It  is  not 
merely  to  gain  the  rudiments  of  useful  book  knowledge,  or  to 
learn  how  to  use  them.  It  is  not  the  development  and  training 
of  the  higher  faculties,  alone,  at  which  it  ought  to  aim.  These 
are  essential  to  a  proper  school  education,  wherever  it  is  pur- 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  25 

sued.  But  there  is  something  more  to  be  considered  than  the 
mere  amount  of  what  one  gets  from  books,  or  recitations.  The 
adaptation  of  what  a  young  man  acquires  to  the  wants  and 
needs  of  his  after  life  is  of  more  importance  than  the  quantity 
of  scholastic  learning  he  attains.  The  student,  in  a  professional 
school,  pursues  the  studies  which  he  expects  to  apply  in  the 
business  of  actual  life,  rather  than  what  suits  his  taste,  or  fits 
him  to  shine  in  society.  And  the  same  principle  commends 
itself  to  the  good  sense  of  every  man  who  is  educating  his 
children  with  a  view  to  the  places  they  are  to  fill  upon  the 
stage  of  action. 

Much  of  what  one  has  to  make  use  of,  in  connection  with 
what  he  gets  at  school,  is  acquired,  unconsciously,  from  what 
he  sees  and  hears  before  he  learns  to  judge  of  its  relative 
value  or  importance.  This  part  of  his  education  underlies 
what  he  gains  by  the  aid  of  masters,  and  grows  up  with  it, 
shaping  his  habits  of  thought,  and  supplementing  the  teaching 
of  the  schools.  Its  practical  results  are  seen  in  the  peculiar 
traits  of  language  and  manners  which  distinguish  families 
and  neighborhoods  from  each  other,  though  substantially  alike 
in  other  respects,  and  enter  into  the  characteristics  of  the  very 
nationality  of  different  States ;  it  is  confined  to  no  rank  or  con- 
dition in  life,  and  helps  to  form  that  body  of  notions  which 
serve  the  office  of  popular  instincts.  This  part  of  a  man's 
education  he  imbibes,  if  ever,  while  he  is  young,  by  associa- 
tion with  others,  his  equals  as  well  as  his  superiors.  And  one 
great  objection  to  sending  a  boy  abroad  to  get  his  school  educa- 
tion is,  that  he  either  fails  to  receive  this  practical  training  in 
incipient  citizenship  altogether,  or  receives  one  that  unfits  him 
for  the  exigencies  and  experiences  of  the  career  which  is  open  to 
him  as  an  American.  To  my  mind  this  is  a  most  serious  objec- 
tion to  educating  American  boys  and  young  men  in  any  of  the 
schools  of  Europe.  Theoretically  considered  alone,  it  is  strong 
enough,  but  so  many  practical  illustrations  of  the  working  of 
the  system  have  fallen  under  my  own  observations,  that  to  my 
mind  the  objection  is  insurmountable.  I  waive  the  moral 
aspect  of  the  theory,  and  yield,  for  the  purpose  of  the  argument, 
to  any  supposed  superior  processes  of  teaching  which  are  to  be 
learned  in  schools.     I  have  seen  young  men  come  home  fromi 


26  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

these  schools  at  the  age  of  eighteen  to  twenty-one  or  two  years, 
who  have  found  themselves  so  utterly  at  fault  in  everything 
that  relates  to  the  inner  and  social  life  of  their  own  country,  its 
institutions,  laws,  government,  and  the  practical  things  of  life 
which  every  bright  and  intelligent  American  young  man  has 
become  familiar  with,  by  simply  living  among  them,  that  they 
found  they  had  been  gaining  knowledge  at  the  expense  of  what 
answers,  in  many  respects,  to  common  sense.  I  have  in  mind 
a  most  excellent,  pure-minded,  5^oung  man,  some  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  whom  I  knew  in  one  of  our  professional  schools. 
His  father,  a  man  of  education  and  culture,  took  him  at  an 
early  age,  with  his  family,  to  Europe,  placing  him  at  first  class 
schools  and  institutions  in  France  and  Grermany  for  many  years, 
giving  him  as  good  an  education  as  these  could  supply.  His 
culture  was  high,  and  his  attainments  large.  He  had  come 
back  to  complete  his  education  here  to  fit  him  for  a  profession 
which  he  proposed  to  follow.  He  had  all  the  accomplishments 
which  good  masters  could  impart  to  him,  and,  so  far  as  moral 
and  intellectual  training  went,  his  education  was  really  of  a 
high  order.  But  he  knew  nothing  of  his  own  country,  her 
laws,  habits  or  institutions,  and  I  have  heard  him,  again  and 
again,  deplore  the  mistake  he  had  made  in  having  lost  what  he 
found  so  many  of  his  companions  and  associates  seemed  to  pos- 
sess intuitively,  although  so  greatly  his  inferiors  in  learning  and 
classical  attainment.  It  placed  an  almost  impassable  gulf 
between  him  and  them  upon  every  thing  relating  to  public 
policy  and  the  topics  which  were  engaging  the  public  attention. 
Nor  was  it  easy  to  bridge  over  this  or  bring  his  habits  of 
thought  into  harmony  with  those  around  him.  He  had  been 
indoctrinated  in  every  thing  that  could  make  him  a, general 
scholar,  but  lacked  the  practical  qualities  of  an  American 
citizen. 

This  elementary  training  of  which  I  have  spoken  draws  no 
little  of  its  force  and  effect  from  placing  boys,  of  all  classes,  in 
free  communication  with  each  other  in  our  common  schools, 
and  is  felt  in  the  class  associations  of  our  colleges.  But  by  that 
time,  a  young  man  is  ready  to  avail  himself  of  the  advantages 
of  foreign  schools  and  universities  without  danger  of  losing  the 
instincts  of  home  and  country,  and  my  judgment  is  altogether 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  27 

in  favor  of  a  step  like  that  for  the  purpose  of  completing  his 
preparatory  course  of  education.  But  it  is  not  to  such  a  class, 
as  I  understand  it,  that  your  inquiry  relates. 

Very  truly  yours,  &c., 

EMOEY  WASHBUEN, 

Ex-  Gov.  of  Mass.  and  Prof.  Harvard  Law  School. 


Department  of  Public  Instruction,  ) 
JDes  Moines^  Iowa,  j^pril  14,  1873.    \ 

Dear  Sir, — The  sentiments  expressed  in  your  paper  on  the 
question  of  educating  American  youth  abroad,  meet  my  hearty 
approval.  In  my  judgment,  the  American  schools  of  the  pres- 
ent, and  American  society,  are  the  best  in  the  world  for  edu- 
cating American  youth,  and  preparing  them  for  American  citi- 
zenship. If  they  are  sent  abroad  to  study,  it  should  not  be 
until  they  have  received  thorough  and  liberal  training  at  home. 
Yours  truly,  ALONZO  ABEENETHY, 

State  Superintendent  of  Schools. 


Office  of  Sup't  of  Public  Instruction,  ) 
Madison,  Wisconsin,  April  15,  1873.      j 

Dear  Sir, — I  feel  a  deep  interest  in  the  question  of  the  edu- 
cation of  our  American  youth  in  foreign  countries,  and  am  very 
glad  that  you  are  calling  the  attention  of  the  public  to  it. 

I  firmly  believe  that  it  is  detrimental  to  our  boys  and  girls 
to  be  trained  in  European  schools  during  the  formative  period 
of  their  character.  American  education  means  an  education  in 
American  ideas,  thoughts,  principles,  life.  Such  an  education 
can  be  imparted  only  in  our  midst. 

The  methods,  aims  and  very  atmosphere  of  foreign  schools 
differ  in  toto  from  ours.  We  aim  to  make  our  scholars  self- 
reliant,  independent,  and  at  the  same  time  obedient  to  law. 
We  train  them  from  the  lowest  primary  to  the  highest  class  in 
the  High  School,  in  self-government /or  self-government.  For- 
eign schools  are  pervaded  with  the  distinctions  of  rank,  and 
obsequiousness  and  servility  toward  the  ruling  classes  are  per- 
sistently taught. 


28  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

I  know  to  some  extent  the  opinions  of  leading  German  edu- 
cators among  us,  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  German  and  Amer- 
ican schools,  and  while  they  have  a  just  pride  in  the  exalted 
position  the  schools  of  the  Fatherland  have  won,  and  can  see 
many  defects  in  our  own  public  schools,  they  are  emphatic  in 
saying,  "American  schools  in  processes  and  results  are  the  best 
for  American  children." 

From  considerations  of  a  moral,  social  and  political  nature, 
I  should  think  American  parents  would  be  deterred  from 
removing  their  children  out  of  tbe  natural,  wholesome,  Chris- 
tian influences  of  American  society.  I  hope  the  growing  evil 
may  be  promptly  arrested. 

After  the  character  has  been  formed,  and  the  best  culture 
among  us  been  obtained,  our  youth  may  seek  and  enjoy  with 
comparative  safety  the  higher  culture  those  foreign  countries 
afford.  Very  truly  yours, 

SAMUEL  FALLOWS, 
State  Superintendent  of  JSchools, 


The  University  of  Minnesota,  ) 
April  16,  1873.  \ 

Hon.  and  Dear  Sir^ — I  have  held  your  letter,  hoping  to  find 
opportunity  for  replying  at  length,  but  find  myself  shut  up  to 
giving  you  a  mere  bulletin. 

I  have  had  some  experience  in  the  matter  of  which  you  write. 
You  are  entirely  correct.  The  fashion — and  it  has  become  a 
fashion — is  a  most  useless  and  vicious  ooe.  Fortunately  it  is 
one  chiefly  followed  by  snobs,  whose  children  would  only  be 
dead  weight  in  our  American  schools  and  colleges.  But  for 
fear  it  may  go  further,  I  hope  you  will  give  it  a  coup  de  grace  iu 
your  proposed  writing. 

I  am  very  truly  yours, 

WM.  W.  FOLWELL, 

President  of  the  State  University. 


Columbus,  Ohio,  April  16,  18*73. 
My  Dear  Sir, — I  fully  endorse  your  earnest  protest  against 
the  practice  of  sending  American  youth  abroad  for  an  educa- 
tion»    You  are  doing  a  valuable  service  in  calling  public  atten- 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  29 

tion  to  the  folly  and  danger  of  this  fashion.  The  facts  you  so 
clearly  and  boldly  state  are  attested  by  the  sad  experience  of 
hundreds  of  American  families.  I  do  not  see  how  any  wise 
American  parent  can  think  of  giving  a  child  an  European  edu- 
cation at  so  great  a  risk.  The  fact  that  European  society  is 
monarchical  in  its  usages  and  spirit,  is  sufficient  evidence  that 
it  cannot  be  favorable  to  the  development  of  a  true  republican 
character ;  and  the  very  refinement  and  glamour  of  its  immo- 
rality and  vices  have  a  seductive  and  pernicious  influence  on 
American  children,  especially  those  who  have  wealthy  parents. 
There  is  also  no  doubt  that  American  schools  give  a  better 
preparation  for  American  life  and  duties  than  the  schools  of 
Europe,  notwithstanding  the  admitted  superiority  of  the  latter 
in  several  important  particulars.  The  American  school  is  per- 
vaded by  the  earnest  spirit  of  American  life  and  morals,  and 
what  it  lacks  in  linguistic  and  aesthetic  culture  is  more  than 
made  good  by  its  intellectual  vigor,  practical  bearing,  and 
healthful  incentives.  It  is  admitted  that  Europe  offers  superior 
advantages  to  young  persons  of  education  and  established  char- 
acter, who  may  wish  to  pursue  certain  special  studies,  but  we 
hope  the  time  may  soon  come  when  no  American  will  find  it 
necessary  to  go  abroad  for  such  scholastic  advantages. 
Very  truly  yours, 

E.  E.  WHITE, 

Ex- Superintendent  of  Schools  of  Ohio. 


Hartford,  April  16,  1873. 
My  Bear  Mr.  Northrop^ — I  have  long  wanted  and  waited  to 
hear  such  a  clear-voiced  utterance  as  you  have  given  touching 
the  education  of  our  children  in  Europe.  You  have  covered 
the  ground  so  fully  that  little  remains  for  me  to  add,  excepting 
my  testimony.  The  drift  of  the  influences  abroad  tends  to 
un-Americanize  our  youth,  to  teach  them  to  despise  their  own 
land,  to  over-estimate  the  surface  polish  of  Europe,  and  to 
under-rate  the  sturdy  simplicity  of  an  earlier  national  character. 
The  American  system  for  Americans  is  the  true  idea;  and  hap- 
pily, with  the  great  attractions  which  we  have  been  able  to  offer 
to  foreigners,  we  have  had  brought  to  us  the  best  that  Europe 


80  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

had  to  give.  I  believe  in  travel  for  those  who  have  ended 
their  regular  studies ;  but  I  believe  that  the  education  of  boys 
and  girls  abroad  real-s  up  a  hybrid  class,  neither  Europeans  nor 
Americans,  ill  adapted  to  practical  duties  in  either  hemisphere.* 
But  all  this  you  have  well  said,  and  I  can  only  add  my 
endorsement  of  your  article,  and  my  hope  that  we  shall  soon 
get  away  from  the  infatuation  of  the  present  time,  with  its 
dream  that  our  sons  and  daughters  can  be  better  reared  for 
their  own  home  labors  amid  the  scenes  of  a  foreign  and  differ- 
ent, and,  in  many  things,  adverse  civilization. 

Faithfully  yours,  W.  L.  GAGE. 


Obeklin  College,  Ohio,  ) 
April  18,  1873.  \ 

Dear  Sir^ — In  your  article  on  the  question  of  educating 
American  youth  abroad,  the  views  expressed  harmonize 
entirely  with  my  own  convictions. 

As  my  life  has  been  spent  in  the  newer  portions  of  the  coun- 
try, with  the  opportunity  of  only  a  few  months'  travel  in 
Europe,  of  course  my  direct  observation  of  the  effect  of  for- 
eign education  upon  American  youth  has  been  quite  limited, 
and  my  opinion  must  be  regarded  as  mostly  a  theoretical  one. 
But  whatever  may  be  said  in  behalf  of  the  thoroughness  of 
German  schools,  it  is  self-evident  that  a  boy  spending  ten  years 
of  his  life  abroad,  at  that  period  when  he  is  most  impressible, 
will  lose  to  a  great  extent  that  unconscious  tuition  so  essen- 
tial to  his  general  culture,  and  which  furnishes  him  with  so 
large  a  part  of  the  practical  knowledge  which  fits  him  for  life. 
This  loss  can  never  be  made  good  to  him ;  European  ideas  and 
culture  will  not  serve  his  purpose.  They  rather  put  the  young 
man  out  of  adjustment  with  American  society,  and  so  cripple 
him  for  his  life  work. 

To  speak  of  positively  harmful  inflaehces,  I  cannot  but 
think  that  the  social  habits  of  Europe  are  less  desirable  and 
safe  than  those  of  the  better  portion  of  American  society  ;  and 
that  the  power  of  the  religious  sentiment  and  of  religious  wor- 

*  His  long  residence  in  Grermany  and  familiar  acquaintance  with  American 
students  abroad  give  special  value  to  the  opinions  of  Mr.  Gage. 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  31 

ship,  even  in  Protestant  Germany,  is  less  effective,  less  likely 
to  lead  to  rational  conviction  and  practical  results,  than  in  our 
own  country. 

Except  in  the  way  of  special  training,  in  philology  and  in 
art,  and  possibly  in  some  branches  of  science,  I  have  no  doubt 
that  our  home  education  is  much  the  more  effective  and  whole- 
some. I  am  glad  that  you  are  calling  public  attention  to  this 
question.  Very  truly  yours, 

JAMES  H.  FAIRCHILD, 

President  of  Oherlin  College. 


MiDDLEBURT    COLLEGE,  ) 

Middlehury,  Vt.,  April  18,  1873.  ] 
Bear  Sir, — There  are  certain  rare  cases  in  which  foreign 
study  may  be  desirable ;  cases  of  students  already  somewhat 
ripe  in  education  and  character,  craving  more  perfect  culture  in 
higher  philology  or  in  specialties  of  art  or  science.  Such 
exceptional  cases  will  doubtless  find  completer  apparatus  and 
opportunity  of  higher  attainment  in  some  of  the  European  uni- 
versities ;  and  some  finish  of  facility  in  the  modern  tongues 
will  be  gathered  by  the  way.  But  for  common  aims,  and  espe- 
cially for  theological  purposes,  I  think  the  advantages  of  for- 
eign study  have  been  greatly  over-estimated. 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  education,  our  own  schools  and  col- 
leges are  safer  and  every  way  to  be  preferred,  in  my  estima- 
tion, for  American  youth  seeking  practical  training,  and  priz- 
ing good  uses  and  solid  attainments  above  modish  manners  and 
Parisian  French.  In  a  thousand  ways  a  child  bred  abroad 
becomes  foreign  in  thought  and  feeling.  Unconsciously  a  fool- 
ish and  hurtful  taint  of  foreign  airs  and  spirit  gets  ingrained 
and  sets  him  out  of  sympathy  with  our  simple  republican  life. 
And  unless  attended  by  watchful  family  care,  even  worse  and 
deeper  damage  is  to  be  apprehended. 

Very  truly  yours,  H.  D.  KITCHEL, 

President  of  Middlebury  College. 


32  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

Kalamazoo^  Mich.,  April  19,  1873. 

My  Dear  Sir, — The  views  you  have  expressed  respecting  the 
education  of  American  children  in  Europe  seem  to  me  timely 
and  just.  If  instances  had  not  come  to  my  knowledge,  I 
should  think  it  hardly  possible  for  intelligent  men  and  women 
to  send  their  children,  from  eight  to  eighteen  years  old,  to  be 
educated  in  France  or  Germany  or  Italy.  But  even  intelli- 
gent persons  sometimes  do  foolish  things,  if  fashion  calls  for 
them. 

The  subject  is  worthy  of  a  full  discussion,  and  I  hope  you 
will  so  present  it  as  to  compel  the  attention  of  our  fellow-citi- 
zens generally.  I  am  always  glad  when  I  hear  of  any  young 
man,  of  suitable  age  and  present  attainments,  deciding  to  pur- 
sue his  studies  under  the  instruction  of  those  German  or  Frencli 
teachers  who  have  given  their  lives  to  special  departments  of 
learning.  For  such  opportunities  for  study,  added  to  what 
they  have  enjoyed  at  home,  cannot  fail  to  give  breadth  to  the 
mind,  and  render  its  scholarship  more  generous.  But  the  Ger- 
man or  French  mi n 4  is  not  itself  any  broader  than  the  Ameri- 
can. Is  it  as  broad  ?  That  which  has  great  value  as  a  com- 
plement, may  have  less  value  in  itself  than  that  of  which  it  is 
the  fitting  complement.  To  substitute  education  abroad  for 
education  at  home,  is  to  lose  some  of  the  best  elements  of  an 
education. 

Have  you  not  observed  that  German  and  French  are  better 
taught  in  our  schools  by  a  really  competent  American  than  by 
a  native  French  or  German  ?  The  latter  may  know  more  con- 
cerning the  language  he  teaches;  but  ordinarily  he  has  less 
tact  in  teaching  Americans.  For  a  similar  reason,  children 
placed  exclusively  under  the  care  of  foreign  teachers  must,  in 
general,  suffer  some  disadvantage.  Their  education  is  likely 
to  have  less  practical  value. 

Yours  truly,         KENDALL  BKOOKS, 

President  Kalamazoo  College. 


University  of  Vermont,      ]_ 
Burlington,  April  20th,  1873.  \ 
Dear  Sir, — I  have  very  strong  convictions  on  the  subject 
which  you  have  taken  in  hand.     My  attention  was  called  to  it 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  33 

nearly  twenty  years  ago  by  the  accident  of  my  becoming  ac- 
quainted with  a  young  American  of  distinguished  name  and 
lineage,  who  had  just  completed  his  education  in  Europe.  The 
youth  was  by  no  means  destitute  of  parts ;  he  had,  it  is  true, 
the  disadvantage  of  being  heir  to  wealth  and  social  position  in 
a  country  in  which  this  species  of  "  nobility  "  imposes  no  tradi- 
tional "obligations,"  but  he  was  not  altogether  without  ambi- 
tion ;  he  was  returning  to  engage  in  active  pursuits  as  an 
American  citizen  and  man  of  business ;  but  I  was  at  once  struck 
with  his  total  unfitness,  in  discipline,  in  habits,  in  acquired 
knowledge,  especially  knowledge  of  mankind,  to  compete  with 
the  average  young  man  of  my  acquaintance,  in  the  practical 
business  of  American  life.  I  had  just  come  from  his  native 
land,  which  he  had  not  seen  for  many  years :  great  events  were 
taking  place  at  that  very  hour  in  which  every  intelligent 
American  was  absorbingly  interested  :  he  had  not  a  question  to 
ask  or  a  remark  to  make  which  indicated  that  he  ever  had  a 
thought  about  his  own  country :  his  enthusiasm  was  all  ex- 
pended upon  the  glories  of  German  life,  and  the  letters  of 
Madame  de  Sevignd  My  involuntary  prophecy  respecting 
him  has  been  fulfilled.  In  spite  of  the  splendid  opportunities 
which  hie  position  opened  to  him,  he  has  never  risen  above 
some  secretaryship  in  a  mercantile  company.  I  mention  this 
case  not  as  being  decisive  of  the  question,  but  to  show  you  that 
my  opinions  are  not  new.  From  that  day  to  this,  I  have 
watched  this  matter  only  to  find  my  first  impressions  confirmed  ; 
to  be  more  and  more  convinced  that  an  American  boy  edu- 
cated abroad,  enters  upon  the  work  of  life  under  great  disad- 
vantages. 

The  presumption  is  obviously  in  favor  of  a  child's  being 
educated  in  his  own  country,  trained  in  the  language  which  he 
is  to  use,  subjected  to  the  moulding  influence  of  the  ideas, 
modes  of  thought,  traditions,  institutions  of  the  race  to  which  he 
belongs,  dyed  in  the  national  sentiments  of  his  own  people — 
unless,  indeed,  he  is  to  be  started  out  into  life  with  the  intima- 
tion that  these  are  all  things  to  be  ashamed  of  and  disowned. 
This  degree  of  recreancy  no  class  of  the  American  people  have 
reached  as  yet,  though  what  the  next  generation  may  come  to, 
if  so  many  of  them  are  to  be  educated  in  Europe,  it  is  mortify- 


34  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

ing  to  imagine.  What,  then,  are  the  considerations  which  pre- 
vail in  the  minds  of  intelligent  and  patriotic  Americans,  in  favor 
of  a  foreign  education  for  their  children?  I  can  think  of  but 
two  which  are  of  weight ;  first,  that  the  fundamentals  of  educa- 
tion, which  are  the  same  everywhere  and  for  all,  are  better 
taught  in  European  than  in  American  schools :  or  secondly, 
that  the  opportunity  of  acquiring  foreign  languages,  and  other 
accomplishments,  such  as  music  and  art-culture,  counterbalance 
any  disadvantage  in  this  respect.  Now  I  do  not  accede  to  the 
first  position.  I  do  not  believe  that  what  we  call  the  "  ordinary 
branches"  of  a  rudimentary  education  are  more  thoroughly 
taught  in  the  schools  of  France  and  Germany  than  in  our 
better,  I  do  not  say  best,  class  of  schools.  When  Guyot  tells  us 
how  he  taught  geography  in  Switzerland,  we  must  not  suppose 
that  every  Swiss  teacher  is  a  Guyot.  I  speak  from  some  ob- 
servation of  the  schools  in  Switzerland  and  Germany,  when  I 
say  that  a  good  American  public  school  brings  out  better  results 
in  the  way  of  character,  of  aptitude  for  work,  of  versatility — 
and  what  is  an  education  for,  but  to  develop  character,  and  to 
fit  for  the  work  of  life? — than  an  average  German  or  Swiss 
school.  The  foreign  teacher  is  quite  likely  to  have  more  learn- 
ing, but  his  tact,  his  teaching  power,  his  good  sense,  and  re- 
spectability as  a  man,  are  likely  to  be  far  less.  Americans 
ought  to  get  at  least  a  suspicion  of  this  from  the  well-known 
fact  that  it  is  next  to  impossible  to  find  a  foreign  teacher  who 
can  manage  a  class  of  American  boys  in  a  High  School  or 
College.  If  it  is  replied  that  what  these  foreigners  lack  is  not 
ability,  but  a  knowledge  of  the  peculiarities  of  American  boys, 
I  answer,  exactly  so,  and  a  fatal  lack  to  them  it  is.  American 
boys  have  their  peculiarities,  and  they  ought  to  have :  Ameri- 
can men  have  theirs :  American  life  and  society  are  different 
from  German  or  French  life  and  society.  And  a  great  lack,  it 
would  be  to  an  American  to  grow  up  without  getting,  through 
American  schools,  from  American  teachers,  and  in  every  other 
possible  way,  that  knowledge  of  Americans  on  which  depends 
more  than  half  his  success  in  any  calling  whatsoever. 

As  to  the  second  point,  valuable  as  is  the  ability  to  speak 
two  or  three  languages,  the  accomplishment  is  dearly  purchased 
when  we  sacrifice  for  it  the  influences  of  home  and  country, 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  35 

and  more  than  all,  of  religion,  as  in  most  instances  we  must, 
during  the  formative,  critical  years  of  boyhood.  For  these 
years  that  are  most  valuable  in  the  study  of  foreign  languages, 
are  the  very  years  in  which  almost  all  other  useful,  noble  and 
beautiful  things  must  be  learned,  if  ever.  The  parent  has  to 
consider  whether,  for  the  sake  of  French  and  German,  Music 
and  Art,  or  so  much  of  them  as  a  young  boy  can  acquire  abroad, 
and  cannot  acquire  at  home,  it  is  worth  while  to  have  him 
grow  up  deficient  in  home  attachment  and  love  of  country ; 
weak  in  his  sympathy  with  American  ideas  and  institutions ; 
quite  likely  with  a  vacuum  in  his  heart  Vhere  religious  princi- 
ples should  be  rooted  and  growing ;  and  in  danger  of  being 
unsettled  for  life. 

As  regards  the  supposed  benefits  of  foreign  travel,  I  look 
upon  it  as  nothing  short  of  a  calamity  to  any  one  to  have  made 
the  tour  of  Europe  while  a  mere  child.  I  would  not  accept 
such  an  opportunity  for  my  own  children.  To  gaze  upon  the 
wonders  and  beauties  of  the  world  with  the  vacant  stare  of 
childhood,  is  to  forego  half  the  impression  they  would  other- 
wise make  upon  the  mature  man.  What  is  more  provoking 
than  the  unimpressibility  of  young  people  in  presence  of  great 
events  and  sublime  objects?  Listen  to  the  flippancy  with 
which  young  misses,  just  from  Europe,  speak  of  the  grandest 
things  that  God  or  man  has  made  !  What  have  they  got  from 
the  grand  tour,  but  such  a  superficial  familiarity  with  the 
world's  wonders  as  takes  the  bloom  off  their  enthusiasm  for- 
ever? 

There  is  a  time  in  the  progress  of  mental  development  when 
foreign  travel,  and  even  a  limited  residence  abroad,  will  prove 
of  the  highest  value  to  a  young  man,  especially  to  an  American. 
None  need  more  than  he  to  see  foreign  countries,  arts,  monu- 
ments, institutions ;  to  learn  respect  for  other  things  than  those 
which  he  intelligently  prefers,  and  to  have  his  patriotism,  even, 
liberalized  by  the  conviction  that  "  God  had  a  hand  in  making 
other  countries  beside  his  own."  But  the  time  for  this  is  not 
until  his  character  has  attained  some  maturity.  When  he  has 
learned  the  best  that  the  schools  and  universities  of  his  native 
land  can  teach  him,  when  he  has  acquired  some  power  of  ob- 
servation and  reflection,  then  let  him  travel  in  foreign  lands 
and  study  in  foreign  universities. 


36  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

In  what  I  have  said  thus  far,  I  have  had  very  little  reference 
to  American  girls.  When  we  speak  of  the  education  of  girls, 
a  totally  different  meaning  glides  into  the  very  word  education. 
To  educate  a  boy  means  to  give  fibre  and  tone  to  his  mental 
powers,  to  train  him  into  a  healthy,  vigorous  mental  and  moral 
condition.  To  educate  a  girl  means  to  furnish  her  with  an 
outfit  of  accomplishments.  So  long  as  this  conception  of  a 
girl's  education  satisfies  us,  it  makes  no  very  great  difference 
whether  she  be  educated  at  home  or  abroad.  If  French,  Music 
and  Art  are  to  be  the  stuff,  and  not  merely  the  fringes  of  her 
education,  she  will  wiAout  doubt  be  better  served  in  Europe 
than  at  home.  By  all  means  let  her  go.  She  cannot  possibly 
learn  less  of  everything  that  goes  to  make  up  a  strong,  helpful, 
sweet-toned,  full-souled  womanly  character,  than  she  would 
learn  in  the  schools  at  home,  created  and  patronized  by  the 
class  to  which  she  belongs.  I  only  hope  she  will  get  a  French 
husband  and  stay  in  France.  The  American  matron  ought  to 
be  an  educated  American  woman. 
Yery  truly  yours, 

M.  H.  BUCKHAM, 

President  University  of  Vermont 


Marietta  College,  ) 
May  1st,  1873.       \ 

My  Dear  Sir^—1  am  very  glad  that  you  are  calling  attention 
to  the  matter  of  sending  American  boys  and  girls  to  Europe  for 
their  education.  Your  condemnation  of  the  practice  is  none  too 
severe.  The  disadvantages  far  exceed  the  advantages.  Gen- 
tlemen who  have  sent  their  sons  to  Europe  and  kept  them  there 
a  number  of  years,  have  assured  me  that  they  were  on  their 
return  far  behind  other  lads  of  their  own  age,  who  had  been  in 
attendance  upon  our  American  schools.  One  gentleman  in 
particular  was  very  decided  in  his  condemnation  of  European 
schools  for  American  boys.  His  sons  had  learned  much  which 
should  not  have  been  learned,  and  had  fallen  behind  in  the  es- 
sentials of  a  good  education.  He  declared  emphatically  that 
this  sending  boys  to  Europe  for  an  education  was  a  "humbug." 

You  class  it  among  the  fashionable  follies  of  the  day,  and  feel 
assured  that  experience  and  a  wiser  self-respect  will  rectify  it 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  37 

when  the  comparative  results  of  the  two  systems  come  to  be 
better  understood.  I  confess  that  I  am  not  so  sanguine. 
Fashion  has  not  a  little  to  do  with  education.  Multitudes  of 
people  will  send  their  children  to  a  poor  school  that  is  expen- 
sive,, in  preference  to  one  that  is  thorough  and  good  but  inex- 
pensive. They  will  send  their  children  at  heavy  cost  to  distant 
parts  of  the  country  for  an  education  that  could  be  had  at  home, 
or  in  their  own  region,  at  a  very  moderate  expense.  The  same 
reasons  influence  parents  to  send  their  children  to  Europe. 

But  some  act  from  higher  and  wiser  motives,  and  they  will 
heed  such  suggestions  as  you  are  making.  Perhaps  the  tide  is 
already  turning  among  the  more  intelligent  of  our  people.  If 
there  is  anything  in  the  European  methods  of  education  which 
is  superior  to  our  own,  it  can  be  engrafted  upon  ours.  For 
American  boys,  I  have  no  doubt  the  American  naethods  are 
better  than  the  German  or  French  or  English.  But  we  may 
introduce  all  improvements  which  are  found  to  exist  elsewhere, 
still  keeping  the  stock  or  basis  substantially  American. 
Yery  sincerely  yours, 

I.  W.  ANDKEWS, 

President  of  Marietta  College. 


Yale  College,  ) 

New  Haven,  Conn,,  May  3,  1873.  j 

Dear  Sir^ — The  views  expressed  by  yourself  in  the  communi- 
cation which  you  were  so  kind  as  to  send  me  are  such  as  I  have 
long  entertained.  I  have  known  a  few  young  persons  who 
have  received  an  excellent  education  abroad ;  better  far  than 
they  would  have  obtained  at  home,  but  these  were  exceptional 
cases.  , 

Yery  respectfully, 

N,  POKTEE, 

President  of  Yale  College. 


Office  of  Board   of  Education,  \ 
Chicago,  III.,  May  9j  iSlS.      ] 
Sir, — The  advantages  of  foreign  study,  however  great,  can 
not  outweigh  the  importance  of  the  "American  idea,"  nor  atone 
for  the  loss  of  a  true  republican  spirit.     The  average  pupil  sent 


38  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

by  parents  abroad  for  his  education  is  poorly  prepared  to  value 
institutions  at  tbeir  real  worth,  and  is  apt  to  be  dazzled  by  "  the 
glitter  of  royalty."  The  value  of  the  higher  schools  of  the  Old 
World  is  unquestioned,  but  such  should  be  visited  only  by  those 
whose  characters  are  already  moulded  and  whose  judgment  is 
more  powerful  than  the  imagination.  There  is  little  danger 
that  those  who  have  attained  the  education  necessary  for  ad- 
mission to  the  German  universities  will  ever  become  un- Ameri- 
canized. 

There  is  another  view  which  has  much  weight  in  my  mind. 
The  withdrawal  of  the  youth  of  wealth  and  refinement  from 
our  own  seminaries  and  colleges  takes  away  a  patronage  essen- 
tial to  their  elevation.  Very  many  of  our  best  meaning  colleges 
in  the  west  are  unable  to  realize  their  ideal  because  eastern  insti- 
tutions hold  out  more  glittering  inducements,  and  thus  draw 
away  the  wealth  and  the  culture  of  the  west  into  support  of  eas- 
tern colleges.  So  long  as  many  of  the  leaders  in  society  find 
nothing  at  home  good  enough  for  them,  home  institutions  will 
be  starvelings.  If  we  can  improve  the  demand  for  home  culture 
we  shall  certainly  improve  the  supply,  of  which  there  is  great 
need.  Yery  truly  yours, 

"j.  L.  PICKARD, 

Superintenden  t  of  Schools. 


Williams  College,      ) 
WilUamstown,  May  9,  1873.  ) 

Dear  Sir^ — I  have  read  with  much  interest  your  remarks  on 
the  question,  "  Should  American  youth  be  educated  abroad  ?" 
The  advantages  of  foreign  travel  are  very  great,  when  young 
men  have  learned  what  to  observe  and  how  to  observe.  And 
for  some  time  to  come,  our  students  will  find  superior  advan- 
tages in  some  departments  of  learning  in  foreign  universities, 
when  they  know  enough  of  their  own  country  to  judge  fairly 
of  such  advantages,  as  well  as  of  the  institutions  and  customs 
of  the  countries  which  they  visit.  But  we  do  not  have  evidence 
of  such  superiority  of  any  foreign  schools,  as  to  compensate  for 
the  loss  which  must  come  to  the  student  from  absence  from  his 
own  country  during  the  most  important  period  of  his  general 
education. 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  39 

We  must  do  what  we  can  to  make  our  schools  of  every  grade 
worthy  of  the  patronage  of  our  people,  and  those  who  are 
guides  and  advisers  in  matters  of  education  must  do  what  they, 
can  to  secure  for  the  young  men  and  women  of  America,  first 
of  all,  the  advantages  of  a  thorough  training  in  the  schools  of 
their  own  country. 

Yery  truly  yours, 

P.  A.  CHADBOUENE, 

President  of  Williams  College. 


Trinity  College,      ) 
Hartford,  May  10,  1873.  j 

My  Dear  Sir, — I  would  say  in  reply  to  your  note  of  inquiry, 
that  I  have  long  considered  the  question  of  sending  our  young 
men  abroad  for  education.  The  education  which  a  boy  receives 
at  the  Public  Schools  where  he  lives  with  an  assistant  Master 
who  stands  to  him  in  loco  parentis,  is  surrounded  with  the  strong- 
est moral  safeguards,  and  is  therefore  perhaps  the  least  objec- 
tionable. 

The  professional  education  sought  by  young  men  of  mature 
years,  who  go  abroad  with  an  earnest  purpose,  and  who  feel 
that  their  whole  future — their  fortune  and  their  fame — depend 
directly  on  the  use  they  make  of  their  time  and  opportunities,  is 
less  environed  with  dangers  than  some  other  modes  of  foreign 
culture.  Besides,  the  rapid  advance  of  our  own  schools,  scienti- 
fic and  professional,  is  every  day  diminishing  the  need,  and  will 
ere  long  take  away  the  motive  and  excuse  for  resorting  to  for- 
eign universities  for  special  education. 

The  real  difficulty  and  peril  in  this  matter  attach  to  what  is 
known  and  recognised  as  liberal  education,  lying  intermediate 
between  the  Public  School  and  the  Professional  School. 

This  danger  arises  (1)  from  the  impressionable  character  of 
the  age  at  which  this  education  is  pursued,  and  (2)  from  the 
absence  of  salutary  restraints.  It  is  an  age  when  the  sensual  ap- 
petites are  in  great  force,  when  the  love  of  pleasure  is  intense, 
when  experience  is  yet  immature,  and  moral  principle  is  not  yet 
strengthened  into  a  habit  of  steady  self-control.  The  moral 
perils  which  young  men  pursuing  in  foreign  countries  studies 
of  this  class  must  encounter,  are  not  imaginary,  for  they  have 


40  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

written  their  baneful  signatures  on  the  lives  of  not  a  few  of  our 
American  youth. 

But  these  dangers  of  a  foreign  education  are  greatly  enhanced 
by  the  fact  that  the  restraints  which  would  shield  a  young  man 
from  temptation  are  few  and  feeble  in  comparison  with  what 
they  would  be  in  his  own  country.  But  my  strongest  objec- 
tion to  the  liberal  education  which  is  to  be  acquired  abroad  is 
yet  to  be  stated.  It  arises  from  the  fact  that  a  young  man  is 
now  at  the  most  plastic  period  of  his  life.  The  social  and  politi- 
cal life  by  which  he  is  surrounded  make  an  indelible  impres- 
sion upon  him.  They  insensibly  interpenetrate  with  their 
subtle  force  his  whole  nature,  and  mould  his  tastes  and  sympa- 
thies into  harmony  with  his  surroundings.  He  is  thrown  out 
of  gear  with  the  social  and  political  machinery  of  his  native 
country.  He  returns  to  it  with  sympathies  chilled.  He  is 
disposed,  insensibly  it  may  be,  to  criticise  and  compare.  His 
patriotism  is  somewhat  dulled.  His  personality  as  an  element 
of  the  life-force  of  the  nation  has  lost  somewhat  of  its  intensity. 
He  will  neither  be  quite  so  happy  nor  quite  so  useful  as  he 
would  have  been  if  his  nature  had  been  developed  by  the  spirit 
and  the  institutions  of  his  own  country.  There  may  be  in- 
stances of  a  contrary  effect,  but  I  have  here  stated  what  must 
be  from  the  nature  of  the  case  the  general  tendency. 

For  a  young  American  to  go  abroad  to  pursue  special  studies, 
to  gain  general  culture,  to  profit  by  travel,  after  he  has  gradua- 
ted at  one  of  our  colleges,  presents  a  widely  different  case,  and  is 
not  open  to  the  objections  just  stated.  This  presents  a  justly 
prized  opportunity  which,  if  rightly  used,  can  hardly  fail  to 
secure  great  and  substantial  good  without  bringing  with  it 
countervailing  evil. 

I  remain,  my  dear  sir,  very  truly  yours, 

A.  JACKSON, 

President  of  Trinity  (Mlege. 

Columbia  College,  New  York,         ) 
President'' 8  Room^  May  13^A,  1873.  j" 

Dear  jSir, — The  subject  is  an  important  one  in  several  re- 
spects. In  the  first  place,  it  is  important  from  the  point  of 
view  of  simple  economy.     You  have  correctly  remarked  that 


EDUCATION   ABKOAD.  41 

the  costliness  of  the  foreign  education  of  their  children  is  to 
many  parents  a  recommendation  rather  than  a  discouragement. 
To  them  as  individuals,  it  is  a  matter  of  no  concern  where  they 
expend  their  money ;  but  they  prefer  to  expend  it  in  ways 
which  imply  the  possession  of  that  kind  of  social  superiority 
which  wealth,  or  the  reputation  of  wealth,  is  supposed  to  be- 
stow. But  when,  by  the  concurrent  action  of  many  individuals, 
with  or  without  concert,  a  large  amount  of  money  is  annually 
withdrawn  from  the  country,  to  be  expended  upon  any  given 
object  elsewhere,  it  becomes  a  matter  of  public  concernment  to 
ascertain  whether  the  benefit  secured  is  a  fair  equivalent  for 
the  outlay.  Should  this  not  appear  to  be  the  case,  and  should 
it  be  further  evident  that,  as  a  consequence  of  the  withdrawal 
of  such  considerable  sums,  the  whole  country  is  made  to  suffer 
in  the  important  interests  which  such  withdrawal  effects,  the 
case  becomes  sufficiently  serious  to  occupy  the  attention  of  the 
thoughtful,  and  to  justify  effort  to  remedy  the  evil,  or  to  arrest 
its  growth. 

But  the  economical  aspect  of  the  present  question  is  of  trivial 
consequence  in  comparison  with  the  results,  in  the  formation  of 
character,  of  the  influences,  moral,  social  and  even  political,  as 
well  as  purely  scholastic,  to  which  the  youth  of  our  country 
must  be  for  some  years  exposed,  in  case  they  are  sent  for  their 
early  education  to  the  schools  of  France  and  Germany.  These 
influences,  except  the  scholastic,  are  all  of  them  unfavorable  to 
the  formation  of  principles  or  the  development  of  ideas,  in  har- 
mony with  those  which  are  most  carefully  cherished  among  us. 
They  are,  therefore,  always  sources  of  danger  to  those  who  are 
subjected  to  them  at  a  period  of  life  when  character  is  most 
plastic  ;  and  they  may  be  to  many  the  occasion  of  their  moral 
ruin.  Nothing  can  altogether  justify  indifference  to  risks  of 
this  kind,  or  careless  defiance  of  them.  Nothing  can  plausibly 
excuse  them,  unless  it  be  the  assurance  that  in  the  advantages 
held  out  for  intellectual  and  aesthetic  culture,  the  foreign 
schools  are  superior  to  ours  to  a  degree  which  renders  compari- 
son ridiculous. 

Is  this  the  case  ?  No  one  exactly  believes  it ;  and  whether 
it  is  true  or  not,  the  American  parents  who  resort  to  foreign 
countries  for  the  education  of  their  children,  or  who  send'  their 


42  EDUCATION  ABKOAD. 

children  abroad  to  be  educated  away  from  their  families,  very 
rarely  indeed  avail  themselves  of  the  national  schools,  to  which 
the  imputed  merit,  if  it  exists  anywhere,  belongs  ;  but  patronize 
rather  by  preference  private  teachers  or  private  institutions,  es- 
tablished expressly  or  mainly  to  live  on  this  foreign  patronage, 
offering  no  guaranty  for  their  thoroughness,  aiming  rather  to 
content  than  to  improve  their  pupils,  and  prosecuting  educa- 
tion as  a  business  rather  than  as  a  profession.  This  being  the 
truth,  it  is  a  question  which  it  would  hardly  pay  to  discuss 
anew,  whether  the  Prussian  educational  system  has  or  has  not 
at  the  present  time  that  decided  superiority  to  other  systems  of 
national  education  which  was  once  conceded  to  it.  It  is  not 
the  Prussian  system  which  Americans  seek  in  Prussia.  We 
may  therefore  assert  without  danger  of  contradiction — without 
danger  at  least  of  contradiction  from  the  experienced — that  as 
a  rule  the  youth  of  America  who  are  sent  to  Germany  for  their 
early  education,  not  only  do  not  find  there  scholastic  advantages 
superior  to  those  which  they  leave  behind  them  at  home,  but 
often  put  up  with  such  as  are  greatly  inferior. 

Notwithstanding  this,  I  have  to  confess  that,  until  within  the 
past  few  years,  I  have  been  all  my  life  rather  disposed  to  favor 
the  residence  abroad,  where  circumstances  would  allow,  during 
8i  part  at  least  of  the  period  allotted  to  education,  of  families 
having  young  children,  on  the  ground  that  in  no  other  way 
can  foreign  languages  be  learned  rapidly  and  thoroughly  at  the 
same  time  ;  and  that  at  no  other  period  of  life  can  the  proper 
pronunciation  of  such  languages  be  perfectly  learned  at  all.  In 
the  present  age,  some  acquaintance  with  the  leading  languages 
of  Europe  is  indispensable  to  every  scholar,  and  even  to  every 
man  of  business.  In  regard  to  two  or  three  of  these  languages, 
the  acquaintance  should  amount  to  familiarity — such  familiarity 
as  may  enable  its  possessor  to  employ  them  freely  in  written 
and  even  in  oral  communications  with  others.  The  last  fifty 
years  has  brought  about  a  great  change  in  this  respect.  The 
improvement  of  the  facilities  of  transportation,  and  the  accelera- 
tion of  the  rapidity  of  movement  both  by  land  and  by  sea,  have 
stimulated  travel  to  a  degree  which  surpasses  all  precedent,  and 
which  brings  people  of  different  nationalities  and  different 
tongues  into  contact  by  multitudes,  every  day.     The  enlighten- 


EDUCATION   ABKOAD.  43 

inent  of  the  world  has  in  like  manner  greatly  advanced,  and 
the  volume  of  publication  in  all  languages  through  the  press 
Jias  increased  many  fold.  The  intermingling  of  peoples  by  mi- 
gration from  country  to  country  has  been  going  on  more  and 
more  actively  every  year  during  the  same  period.  It  is  no 
longer  possible  for  a  man  who  is  master  of  only  a  single  lan- 
guage, either  to  keep  up  with  the  progress  of  published  thought, 
or  altogether  to  escape  liability  to  embarrassment  in  the  trans- 
action of  the  ordinary  business  of  life.  Once  it  was  the  man 
who  travelled  only  who  was  embarrassed  by  the  want  of  facility 
of  communication.  Now,  the  embarrassment  is  brought  to 
every  door. 

It  seemed  to  me  till  recently  that  residence  in  a  foreign  coun- 
try for  a  year  or  two  in  early  life  would  be  an  infallible  means 
of  making  a  child  as  familiar  with  the  language  of  that  country 
as  he  is  already  with  his  own,  and  this  without  any  conscious 
effort.  So  very  important  an  acquisition  seemed  to  me  sufficient 
to  justify  some  sacrifices  and  some  expense.  Observation,  how- 
ever, has  led  me  to  doubt  whether  the  desirable  object  sought 
is  secured  by  the  means  proposed,  either  as  rapidly,  or  as  effect- 
ually as  I  had  believed.  When  children  reside  with  their 
parents- abroad,  they  will  infallibly  converse  together,  if  there 
are  several,  in  their  vernacular  tongue  ;  and  it  is  difficult  also 
to  enforce  the  rule  that  older  members  of  the  family  shall  not 
indulge  them  in  the  same  way.  When  this  is  in  the  least 
allowed,  they  do  not  take  willingly  to  the  foreign  language,  and 
their  progress  is  unsatisfactory.  When  children,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  separated  from  their  families,  they  are  usually  placed 
in  some  one  of  the  private  schools  of  which  I  have  spoken 
above,  instituted  for  the  accommodation  of  pupils  of  their  own 
nationality,  and  usually  filled  with  such.  In  one  point  of  view 
it  may  seem  advantageous  that  the  companions  of  a  child's 
early  years  shall  be  those  of  his  own  kindred  and  people,  brought 
up  in  infancy  under  the  same  influences,  inspired  by  the  same 
dawning  sentiments,  animated  by  the  same  likes  and  dislikes 
as  his.  It  may  seem  also  an  advantage,  and  may  prove  in  some 
instances  to  be  a  real  one,  that  the  childish  friendships  formed 
at  school  shall  not  abruptly  perish  with  the  close  of  school  life, 
as  must  usually  be  the  case  when   the  homes  of  school-mates 


4:4  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

are  in  different  hemispheres,  but  shall  survive  and  ripen  and 
become  in  later  life  sources,  to  those  who  cherish  them,  of  much 
happiness  of  the  kind  which  springs  from  the  intermingling  of 
sympathies.  But  these  are  advantages  which  we  do  not  go 
abroad,  or  send  our  children  abroad,  to  find  ;  and  if  we  encoun- 
ter them  there,  we  encounter  them  by  a  force  of  circumstances 
which  makes  them  directly  antagonistic  to  the  objects  which 
we  do  seek.  For  the  children  of  the  same  nationality  who 
meet  in  a  foreign  boarding  school,  form  a  little  community  of 
their  own,  having  a  common  language  which  they  encourage 
each  other  to  use ;  and  thus  residence  in  the  German  boarding 
school  is  too  commonly  as  unfavorable  as  residence  in  the 
domestic  circle  to  the  acquisition  of  foreign  tongues  by  Ameri- 
can children,  placed  for  their  education  in  the  countries  in 
which  those  tongues  are  spoken.  They  will  acquire  them  of 
course,  at  last ;  but  the  process  is  by  no  means  as  rapid  or  as 
satisfactory  as  parents  anticipate. 

As  for  the  scholastic  culture  which  these  schools  furnish,  it 
has  no  uniformity  of  quality.  None  of  them  attempt  to  put 
into  force  the  vigorous  methods  of  the  public  schools ;  and  they 
differ  doubtless  greatly  among  themselves ;  but  I  have  heard 
very  few  of  them  spoken  of  by  American  parents  in  terms  of 
unqualified  praise.  The  testimony  on  the  other  hand  is  gener- 
ally depreciatory.  It  appears  therefore  to  me  that  neither  the 
general  object  of  mental  culture  nor  the  special  object  of  the 
acquisition  of  tongues  can  be  secured  by  the  children  of 
American  parents  by  residence  abroad  more  effectually  than 
they  can  by  remaining  at  home.  And  while  coming  to  this 
conclusion,  I  have  been  led  to  take  note  of  what  I  had  not  so 
carefully  considered  before,  the  moral  influences  which  sur- 
round the  young  in  the  cities  and  schools  of  France  and  Ger- 
many, and  which  are  such  as,  on  several  accounts,  we  ought  to 
deprecate.  You  have  already  pointed  these  out  bo  forcibly  that 
I  need  hardly  say  more  than  to  record  my  entire  acquiescence 
in  the  justice  of  your  remarks  upon  this  gravely  important  head. 
The  levity  with  which  sacred  subjects  are  referred  to  in  the 
social  life  of  the  continent,  the  sceptical  tone  which  pervades 
so  much  of  the  conversation  and  of  the  ephemeral  literature  of 
those  peoples,  are  enough  to  blight  the  spirit  of  reverence  in 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  45 

any  young  bosom  in  the  bud,  and  to  neutralize  the  effect  of  the 
most  careful  religions  teaching  imparted  during  the  earlier 
period  of  infancy.  The  looseness  of  manners  and  of  morals  of 
which,  in  the  large  towns,  the  young  see  much  and  read  more, 
saps  the  foundation  of  honorable  principle,  and  prepares  the 
youth  to  seek  enjoyment  in  the  gratification  of  his  propensities 
rather  than  in  the  cultivation  of  the  nobler  capacities  of  his  na- 
ture. The  abject  deference  to  rank,  aud  the  universal  and 
willing  acquiescence  in  the  existence  of  those  artificial  social 
inequalities  which  are  the  inheritance  and  the  surviving  evi- 
dence of  a  period  when  might  made  right,  predispose  the 
youthful  mind  not  to  tolerate  merely  but  to  prefer  those  politi- 
cal institutions  which  are  most  widely  contrasted  with  our  own. 
And  finally,  the  prevalence  every  where  on  the  continent, 
among  the  classes  assuming  to  be  cultured,  of  a  contempt, 
which  disdains  even  the  affectation  of  concealment,  for  America 
and  for  everything  American,  cannot  fail,  when  long  continued, 
to  humble  and  even  at  length  to  destroy  the  feeling  of  honor- 
able pride  which  the  young  American  citizen  should  be  taught 
to  entertain,  and  which  on  so  many  accounts  he  has  a  right  to 
entertain,  for  the  land  of  his  nativity. 

On  all  accounts,  therefore,  it  is  my  matured  opinion  that  the 
advantages  of  mental  or  moral  culture  supposed  by  many  to 
be  secured  by  sending  young  people  from  the  United  States  to 
the  continent  of  Europe  to  be  educated,  are  in  the  main  illusory; 
and  that,  if  there  are  any  which  are  not  so,  they  are  not  sufficient 
to  afford  an  adequate  compensation  for  the  possible  dangers  and 
positive  moral  evils  which  must  inevitably  accompany  them. 
I  am,  sir,  very  sincerely  yours, 

F.  A.  P.  BARNARD, 

President  Columbia  College. 


College  of  New  Jersey,  ) 
JPrinceton,  JV,  J.,  April  8,  1873.  \ 
My  Dear  JSir, — I  agree  with  you  as  to  continental  education. 
The  gymnasia  of  Germany  are  certainly  superior  to  the 
American  schools  out  of  New  England.  But  we  might  have 
an  American  education  far  better  than  the  German  for  Ameri- 
cans. JAMES  McCOSH, 

President  College  of  New  Jersey. 


46  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 


Niles^  Mich.^  April  12,  1873. 
Dear  Sir : — For  years  it  lias  been  a  favorite  theory  of  mine 
that  a  youth  should  be  educated  mainly  where  his  field  of  labor 
is  likely  to  be.  So  far,  indeed,  have  I  been  disposed  to  carry 
this,  as  to  hold  that  a  Western  man  may  be  best  trained  in 
Western  schools  for  work  in  the  West ;  and  vice  versa.  "  We 
go  to  Europe  to  be  Americanized,"  says  Emerson.  This  may 
be  true  of  the  man,  but  can  hardly  be  true  of  the  susceptible 
and  growing  boy.  The  difference  in  the  applications  of  educa- 
tional philosophy,  in  the  qualifications  of  teachers,  in  school 
economy,  and  other  means  of  mental  discipline — as  to  some  of 
which  the  European  schools  seem  unquestionably  superior  to 
ours — can  hardly  be  great  enough  to  compensate  for  the  moral 
and  political  dangers  you  have  exposed  so  effectively ;  the  in- 
formation imparted  by  foreign  schools  must  all  be  accessible  in 
our  later  text-books  and  other  literature;  and  the  less  said 
about  the  social  influences  brought  to  bear  upon  the  young 
child  in  many  places  abroad,  the  better.  Our  society  has  no 
sadder  sight  than  a  young  man  or  woman,  native-born  or  of 
American  parents,  but  denationalized,  listless,  unhappy,  unfitted 
by  foreign  training  to  grapple  with  the  problems  of  republican 
life,  and  sighing  for  the  caste  distinctions  and  monarchical  in- 
stitutions made  congenial  to  him  in  childhood  by  the  genius  loci. 
Such  a  phenomenon  is  becoming  quite  too  common;  but  I 
trust  that,  through  your  efforts,  with  the  co-operation  you  pro- 
cure, a  public  sentiment  may  be  created  that  shall  make  an 
exotic  of  this  description  a  rare  one  indeed. 

Very  respectfull}^  and  truly  yours, 

HENEY  A.  FOED, 

Ed.  Michigan  Teacher. 


St.  Louis,  April  22,  1873. 
Dear  Sir, — I  very  cordially  agree  with  the  views  presented 
in  your  printed  article  on  "European  education"  for  our  young 
men.  Your  presentation  of  the  subject  is  just  and  discriminat- 
ing, and  I  think  you  accord  to  the  German  methods  and  insti- 
tutions all  (perhaps  more  than  all)  they  can  rightfully  claim. 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  47 

My  opinion,  sucli  as  it  is,  has  been  formed  from  two  visits  to 
Europe  and  from  personal  knowledge  of  a  large  number  of 
instances  in  which  the  experiment  of  sending  boys  and  young 
men  abroad  for  education  has  been  tried.  As  a  rule,  it  is  a 
signal  failure. 

I  remain  yours  truly, 

W.  a  ELIOT, 

President  Washington  University. 


Staunton^  Va.,  May  16,  1873. 

Dear  Sir, — The  education  of  a  boy  in  a  foreign  country,  un- 
less his  parents  make  it  their  home  for  the  time  being,  is  in 
my  judgment  productive  of  more  evil  than  good.  In  the  period 
of  childhood  and  early  youth  nothing  can  take  the  place  of 
one's  home,  and  native  country,  and  native  language.  These 
give  a  definite  stamp  to  the  character  and  model  of  thought, 
which  furnish  a  fixed  standard  of  comparison  so  necessary  in 
all  subsequent  acquisitions.  The  greatest  benefit  to  be  derived 
from  study  in  a  foreign  country  is,  I  think,  when  one  has  fin- 
ished his  collegiate  and  professional  education  at  home. 
Yours  very  truly, 

B.  SEARS, 
Agent  of  the  Peabody  Educational  Fund. 


Amherst  College,  ) 
May  20,  1873.       j 

Dear  Sir, — You  have  done  a  much  needed  service  to  par- 
ents and  children  in  our  country,  and  to  the  country  itself,  in 
calling  public  attention  to  the  evils  and  dangers  attending  the 
fashionable  folly  of  sending  boys  and  girls  to  foreign  boarding 
schools.  And  you  have  done  it  wisely  and  well.  Your  article 
meets  my  entire  and  hearty  approval.  While  admitting  all  the 
real  excellencies  and  advantages  of  the  German  system  of  edu- 
cation for  Germans  who  pursue  it  entire,  and  of  parts  of  it  for 
more  advanced  American  students  who  are  prepared  to  take 
up  those  parts  with  just  discrimination,  you  show  its  want  of 
adaptation  to  the  mental,  moral,  social  and  religious  wants  of 


48  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

our  bojs  and  girls,  and  the  irreparable  mischief  and  inexcusa- 
ble wrong  that  is  done  them  by  sending  them  abroad  to  spend 
all  the  forming  years  of  their  life  in  any  foreign  boarding 
schools.  The  instruction  given  in  the  boarding  schools,  whether 
in  France,  Switzerland  or  Germany,  is  too  much  like  that  given 
in  the  primary  schools  of  those  countries ;  it  is  milk  for  babes. 
It  is  in  marked  contrast  with  the  strong  meat  on  which  the 
children  and  youth  of  our  country  are  fed  in  our  public  schools 
and  our  best  boarding  schools,  and  still  more  in  our  high  schools 
and  academies.  The  latter,  wholesome,  invigorating  and  stimu- 
lating, is  fitted  to  make  strong  me/i,  qualified  for  business  and 
the  professions  and  to  discharge  the  duties  of  private  and  public 
life.  The  former  is  adapted  and  intended  to  keep  them,  what 
the  common  people  are,  emphatically  in  Germany,  and  more  or 
less  truly  in  other  European  countries,  always  children.  Intel- 
lectually, I  am  fully  persuaded,  that  it  is  a  loss  of  time  and 
a  loss  of  power  for  a  boy  to  spend  three,  four,  five  or  six  years 
of  his  boyhood  in  any  foreign  boarding  school  of  which  I  have 
ever  had  any  knowledge. 

But  this  intellectual  loss  is  a  trifle  in  comparison  with  the 
effect  which  is  produced  on  his  character,  his  ideas  of  men  and 
things,  his  habits  of  thought,  feeling  and  action,  and  his  whole 
standard  and  manner  of  life,  and  which  is,  of  course,  complete  and 
disastrous  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  years  of  early  life  dur- 
ing which  he  is  exiled  from  home  and  country  and  brought  up 
under  the  influence  of  foreign  ideas,  customs  and  institutions, 
as  w^ell  as  the  direct  teaching  of  foreign  masters.  The  result 
is,  in  fact,  just  what  might  be  expected.  You  have  stated  it 
none  too  strongly  :  these  exiles  return  too  often  un-Americanized 
if  not  un-Christianized.  Not  unfrequently  they  lose  all  love  for 
their  own  country,  all  sympathy  with  its  government  and  in- 
stitutions, all  regard  for  its  morals  and  manners,  all  veneration 
for  its  history  and  its  religion.  For  this  incalculable  loss  and 
this  irreparable  injury,  the  only  compensation  is  the  knowledge 
of  a  foreign  language,  together  with  possibly  some  slight 
acquaintance  with  foreign  lands  and  some  little  polish  of  man- 
ners, which  might  be  acquired,  not  perhaps  as  perfectly,  but 
sufficiently  for  any  important  purpose,  in  some  other  way. 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  49 

I  have  written  strongly  -on  this  subject,  because  1  have  seen 
the  evil  often  and  long  deplored  it  I  have  not  time  to  write 
as  fully  and  strongly  as  I  would  my  thoughts  and  feelings, 
and  my  fears.  But  you  do  not  need  warning  or  instruction. 
And  I  have  written  only  to  endorse  the  views  which  you  have 
published,  and  to  encourage  you  to  press  them  still  more  earn- 
estly upon  the  public  mind. 

With  great  respect,  yours  very  truly, 

W.  S.  TYLER 


Durham  Center^  May  21st,  1873. 

Dear  Sir, — I  beg  leave  to  express  to  you  my  high  apprecia- 
tion of  your  lecture  delivered  before  the  Lowell  Institute,  on 
the  question  "  Should  American  Youth  be  Educated  Abroad  ?" 

To  this  question,  carefully  limited  in  your  statement,  you 
give  a  decided  negative,  which  is  sustained  by  facts  observed 
at  home  and  abroad  by  yourself  and  others. 

If  the  object  of  a  parent  were  to  educate  his  young  child  to 
be  a  cosmopolite,  so  that  in  due  time  he  would  have  no  coun- 
try and  no  creed  that  he  could  call  his  own,  he  might  accom- 
plish this  object  by  placing  that  child,  while  his  mind  was  in  a 
forming  state,  successively  under  teachers  in  France,  in  Ger- 
many, in  Turkey,  and  in  China. 

He  might  thus  become  a  citizen  of  the  world  without  feeling 
patriotism  toward  any  country  in  it.  He  might  be  able  to 
quote  Voltaire,  Kant,  The  Koran,  and  Confucius,  without  hav- 
ing faith  in  any  one  of  them.  He  might  rival  the  admirable 
Crichton,  as  recorded  by  the  Earl  of  Buchan,  or  Margrave,  as 
exhibited  in  the  Strange  Story  of  Bulwer,  and  yet  in  this  ma- 
chinery of  American  society  be  entirely  out  of  gear,  and  thus 
useless  and  unhappy. 

But  leaving  a  supposable  and  extreme  case,  let  us  come  into 
the  region  of  actual  occurrences.  Take  an  American  boy  of 
ten  or  twelve  years  of  age,  hitherto  taught  in  a  district  school, 
and  place  him,  first  in  a  boarding  school  in  France  or  Germany, 
and  afterwards  in  some  higher  institution  there. 

In  the  first  place  he  is  exposed  to  embarrassment  from  not 
understanding   the  language  in   which   the   exercises   of  the 


50  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

school,  or  higher  iDstitution,  are  conducted.  His  mistakes  in 
the  pronunciation  and  the  idioms  of  the  language  may  often 
produce  a  laugh  from  his  fellow  students  at  his  expense,  morti- 
fying and  discouraging  him.  The  oral  instructions  given  him 
by  his  teachers  from  time  to  time  may  be  imperfectly  compre- 
hended by  him  and  therefore  less  profitable  to  him  than  to 
others,  to  whom  that  language  is  vernacular. 

But  he  is  exposed  to  be  injured  in  his  morals  before  he  is 
aware  of  the  danger.  He  may  find  from  his  own  experience 
what  ''  thin  partition  soul  from  sense  divides ;"  how  sentiment 
sometimes  degenerates  into  sensuality  and  passion  into  appe- 
tite ;  how  social  pleasures  lead  him  downward  into  dissipation, 
and  the  fascinations  of  the  Picture  Gallery  cultivate  a  refined 
Epicurism. 

Thus  it  may  happen  that  instead  of  bringing  back  stores  of  use- 
ful knowledge,  an  intellect  strengthened  by  severe  discipline,  a 
strong  conscience  for  meeting  the  temptations  of  life,  and  a 
strong  will  to  bear  its  trials  and  to  perform  its  duties,  he  brings 
only  habits  of  pleasure,  love  of  sight-seeing  and  an  enervating 
culture  of  the  esthetic  part  of  his  nature.  Thus  instead  of 
being  qualified  to  perform  the  high  duties  of  an  American 
citizen,  he  finds  himself  fitted  only  for  a  life  of  ease  and  self- 
indulgence. 

The  value  of  an  education  abroad  must  be  derived  from  its 
being  subsidiary  to  a  substantial  education  previously  received 
at  home.  In  this  way  numerous  Americans  have  derived  great 
advantage  from  a  residence  abroad.  Thus  Silliman  in  science, 
Longfellow  in  language,  John  Quincy  Adams  in  statesman- 
ship, Washington  Alston  in  art,  Irving  in  literature,  Charles 
Cotesworth  Pinckney  and  William  Rawle  in  jurisprudence, 
became  distinguished  in  this  country. 

They  continued  to  be  Americans,  though  they  gathered 
knowledge  from  foreign  countries. 

With  my  earnest  hopes  that  your  efibrts  in  promoting  the 
education  of  the  youth  of  our  country  will  be  crowned  with 
success, 

I  remain,  dear  sir,  very  truly  yours, 

W.  C.  FOWLER. 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  61 

The  name  of  the  writer  of  the  following  letter  would  give 
additional  weight  to  his  opinions.  He  is  now  taking  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  new  educational  movements  of  Massachusetts. 
It  is  a  significant  fact  that  a  man  of  such  culture  and  experience, 
after  a  prolonged  residence  abroad,  should  abandon  an  eligible 
position  in  Europe  and  return  to  America  for  the  benefit  of  his 
children,  and  from  a  "decided  conviction  that  the  best  place  of 
education  for  an  American  is  in  his  own  country." 

Boston,  May  26,  1873. 

My  Dear  Sir^ — Your  excellent  article  is  very  conclusive.  It 
might  be  asked,  indeed,  whether  any  civilized  nation  except 
our  own  has  ever  doubted  upon  this  point  in  relation  to  its  own 
youth,  and  this  is  a  negative  proof  of  the  wisdom  of  the  general 
feeling,  that  the  moral,  religious  and  political  atmosphere  of  the 
land  in  which  children  are  born  is  the  best  atmosphere  to  bring 
them  up  in.  My  own  experience  would  lead  me  to  believe  that 
after  twenty,  one  may  live  abroad  for  many  years  without  weak- 
ening home  ties  or  patriotic  feelings,  but  from  the  age  of  seven 
up  to  that  of  eighteen  or  twenty,  the  age  during  which  social 
relations  and  strong  local  attachments  are  formed,  and  those 
ideas  and  opinions  adopted  which  constitute  the  individual, 
absence  from  home  is  dangerous,  and  generally  results  in  mak- 
ing a  man  the  citizen  of  no  country,  and  consequently  without 
that  sense  of  duty  which  every  man  should  feel  toward  that 
special  country  to  which  he  really  belongs.  Instead  of  "  prick- 
ing in  some  flower§  of  that  he  hath  learned  abroad  with  the 
customs  of  his  own  country,"  which  is  what  Lord  Bacon  says 
the  youth  who  travel  should  do,  he  who  is  brought  up  abroad 
is  apt  to  "  change  his  country  manners  for  those  of  foreign 
parts,"  as  the  great  essayist  tells  him  he  should  not  do. 

I  myself  had  a  very  strong  feeling  about  having  my  own 
children  brought  up  at  home,  and  I  returned  to  America  after 
an  absence  of  twelve  years  for  this  purpose.  Although  I  had 
been  more  or  less  in  Europe  for  the  twenty-five  years  since  I 
left  college,  I  found  that  my  local  attachments  were  as  strong  as 
ever,  and  I  can  certainly  say  that  instead  of  having  become  less 
of  an  American,  I  am  much  more  so  than  I  was  when  I  first 
went  to  Europe.     So  far  for  personal  experience.     I  have  had 

^^^^ 

>-^   OF  THE     * 

UKIVBRSITrlj 


62  EDUCATION  ABKOAD. 

opportunities  of  seeing  the  effect  of  foreign  education  upon 
many  young  Americans,  and  have  observed  that  it  is  almost 
always  a  failure. 

I  remain,  yours  very  truly, 


Kew  Haven^  June  2,  1873. 

My  Dear  Sir, — With  the  opinions  expressed  in  your  Report 
as  to  the  advisableness  of  sending  American  boys  abroad  to  be 
educated  I  am  fully  agreed.  Of  course,  there  are  differences  in 
individual  characters  and  circumstances,  and  what  is  bad  on 
the  whole  may  be  found  good  in  exceptional  cases ;  but  I  am 
convinced  that,  as  a  rule,  our  children  are  much  better  off  at 
home  during  the  period  of  their  training.  The  profitable  time 
to  be  in  Grermany  or  France  is  after  the  completion  of  an  ordi- 
nary course  here ;  and  the  more  profitable,  the  more  thorough 
that  course  has  been.  Or  if  a  youth  can  afford  the  time  and 
mind  to  take  a  certain  period  out  of  his  regular  studies  and  go 
abroad,  vacation-like,  to  learn  the  language  and  come  back  to 
his  work,  that  may  also  be  a  good  thing.  I  have  a  very  strong 
feeling  as  regards  the  necessity  of  the  two  chief  modern  lan- 
guages, (especially  the  German,)  to  any  one  who  claims  to  be 
liberally  educated  ;  but  I  think  that  even  this  may  be  bought 
at  too  dear  a  price. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

W.  D.  WHITNEY. 


Letters  expressing  concurrence  in  the  same  general  views 
were  also  received  from  Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson,  D.D.,  now  in 
Berlin,  and  familiar  with  German  schools  and  universities;  D, 
C.  Oilman,  President  California  University ;  Hon.  J.  P.  Wick 
enham.  Superintendent  of  the  schools  of  Pennsylvania ;  J.  G 
Bodwell,  D.D.,  late  Professor  in  the  Hartford  Theological  Sem 
inary,  and  for  some  fifteen  years  a  resident  in  Europe ;  Hon.  J 
W.  Simonds,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction,  ISTew  Hamp 
shire ;  J.  H.  Twombly,  President  of  the  University  of  Wiscon 
sin  ;  and  Hon.  H.  D.  McOarty,  Superintendent  of  Public  Instruc 
tion  of  Kansas. 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  53 

Instead  of  my  personal  impressions  and  observations  in 
Europe  which  I  intended  to  present  in  further  illustration  of 
this  subject,  the  opinions  of  some  representative  journals  are 
given  in  the  following  pages.  These  are  but  specimens  of  many 
similar  articles  published,  but  enough  to  show  that  this  subject 
is  now  up  for  discussion  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  that 
the  mania  for  European  education  is  mischievous.  No  paper 
falling  under  my  notice  has  dissented  from  those  views.  This 
remarkable  unanimity  of  sentiment  on  the  part  of  so  many  emi- 
nent and  experienced  educators  and  editors  from  different 
States,  different  denominations  and  parties,  is  itself  a  confirma- 
tion of  their  truth.  With  the  desire  to  foster  a  healthy  public 
sentiment,  I  have  cited  many  "  witnesses."  Their  combined 
and  concurrent  testimony  will  have  more  weight  than  extended 
arguments  from  a  single  individual. 


Of  late  years  a  disposition  has  shown  itself  among  us  to  send 
our  children  abroad  to  be  educated.  So  far  as  this  springs  from 
that  vulgar  spirit  which  toadies  whatever  is  foreign,  which 
cheerfully  pays  double  price  for  an  article  manufactured  next 
door,  but  labeled  "  Paris,"  which  flings  money  right  and  left  in 
foreign  travel,  to  make  the  natives  stare,  and  only  gets  laughed 
a;t,  we  have  nothing  to  say.  There  are  a  good  many  Jim  Fisks 
in  the  world,  male  and  female,  big  and  little.  They  must  strut 
and  swell  during  their  brief  day,  and  then  collapse  after  having 
begotten  their  kind.  We  have  no  words  to  waste  on  such.  To 
the  sensible,  however,  who  only  seek  the  best  good  of  their  chil- 
dren, we  would  like  to  say  a  few  words. 

In  the  first  place,  good  as  the  Prussian  schools  (it  is  to  Prussia 
most  are  sent)  may  be  in  themselves — and  even  these  are  not 
what  they  used  to  be — they  are  not  the  best  for  American  youth. 
The  latter  inherit  difterent  tendencies,  breathe  a  different  atmos- 
phere, have  different  aspirations,  and  must  reach  success  by  dif- 
ferent methods,  and,  in  a  word,  take  pretty  much  the  whole  of 
life  differently.  In  every  nation  the  schools  are  the  growth  of  all 
the  forces  that  operate  within  it, — history,  tradition,  social  char- 
acter, civil  institutions  and  religion, — and  tend  constantly  to 
reproduce  and  perpetuate  them  in  kind.  If,  now,  we  wished  to 
Germanize  our  children,  and  establish  them  in  Prussia  as  their 
permanent  home,  the  schools  of  the  latter,  with  their  studies, 
methods,  spirit,  influence  and  general  surroundings,  would  be 
just  the  thing  for  them;  but  just  the  wrong  thing,  if  we  wish 
them  to  be,  and  to  remain,  patriotic,  practical,  successful  Ameri- 
can citizens. 

4 


54  EDUCATIOX  ABROAD. 

Foreign  schooling  is  unsafe,  morally.  School  years  are  the 
most  susceptible  in  the  whole  life.  This  gives  them  their  chief 
value  for  all  purposes  of  right  education,  making  them  the 
seed-time  for  the  life-long  harvest.  But  it  is  also  a  prime  source 
of  danger,  making  the  youth  quick  to  take  ineffaceable  impressions 
from  error  and  sin,  while  so  little  protected  by  judgment,  knowl- 
edge of  himself  and  of  the  world,  and  moral  stamina.  The  Chris- 
tian parent  sends  his  child  with  an  anxious  heart  to  the  boarding 
school  or  college  even  in  this  country,  notwithstanding  all  the 
Christian  influences  that  surround  the  latter,  above  the  average 
of  the  general  community.  Must  it  not  seem  like  inviting  his 
ruin  to  send  him  so  far  away  from  home  influence  ;  from  the  land 
of  revivals ;  from  institutions  of  learning  founded  in  prayer  and 
ever  begirt  with  it ;  to  a  land  where  revivals  are  almost  unknown ; 
where  the  Sabbath  is  a  holiday ;  where  infidelity  abounds ;  where 
vice  goes  in  the  garb  of  virtue  ;  and  where  no  high-toned  public 
sentiment  guards  him  around  like  the  angel  camp  of  Jehovah. 

Of  course,  if  the  child  stays  long  in  Germany,  he  will  bring 
back  with  him  a  pretty  good  knowledge  of  the  German  language, 
— and  such  a  knowledge  is  not  to  be  despised, — but  it  will  have 
been  gained  at  the  expense  of  a  still  more  valuable  knowledge  of 
the  English  language  and  literature,  the  richest  in  the  world,  and 
the  most  important  to  him  in  almost  every  conceivable  direction. 

As  to  the  private  boarding-schools,  which  are  supposed  to  be 
specially  adapted  to  foreign  youth,  Mr.  Northrop  says  that  they 
are  generally  much  inferior  to  the  public  schools,  and  that  many 
of  them  are  superficial  and  pretentious,  mere  swindling  concerns. 

Such  testimonies  should  be  conclusive  with  all  who  seek  only 
the  best  good  of  their  children.  —  Watchman  and  Reflector^ 
Boston. 


At  the  dedication  of  the  new  Jefferson.  School,  in  Washington, 
Hon.  B.  G.  Northrop  strongly  condemned  the  prevalent  fashion 
of  sending  American  boys  to  Europe  to  be  educated.  This  warn- 
ing was  indorsed  by  Prof.  Tyndall.  We  also  indorse  it.  Such  a 
practice  is  anti- American  and  dangerous,  tending  to  subvert  our 
free  institutions,  both  by  conveying  the  impression  that  our  edu- 
cational advantages  are  inferior,  and  by  giving  to  foreigners  the 
training  of  our  youth  and  the  direction  of  their  minds  for  action 
when  they  shall  reach  mature  manhood.  The  mistake  might  be 
fatal  were  it  general  and  wide-spread  enough. 

Our  educational  system,  like  our  political,  is  peculiar,  and  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  European  countries.  The  spirit  of  our  schools 
and  colleges  is  allied  to  the  spirit  of  our  popular  form  of  govern- 
ment. Its  tendency  is  toward  individual  and  political  freedom, 
and  the  sovereignty  of  the  will  of  the  people.  Our  schools  have 
a  republican  bias.  So  in  the  countries  of  Europe,  under  a  monar- 
chical form  of  government,  education  is  made  to  conform  to  the 
prevailing  political  ideas.     Science  is  undoubtedly  the  same,  but 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  55 

the  discipline  and  the  moral  atmosphere  of  European  schools  are 
essentially  despotic.  There  is  a  recognition  of  class  distinction^, 
an  homage  paid  to  aristocracy,  and  a  reverence  shown  for  mon- 
archy, which  cannot  fail  to  make  their  impression  on  the  plastic 
mind  of  the  young.  In  short,  the  general  tendency  is  toward 
aristocratic  and  monarchical  institutions,  as  the  general  tendency 
of  education  in  America  is  toward  republican  institutions.  These 
things  are  inevitable.  A  man's  physical  condition  is  no  more 
influenced  by  the  air  he  breathes  than  his  moral  condition  is 
affected  by  his  social  and  political  surroundings.  One's  physical 
constitution  may  be  so  strong  as  to  resist,  to  a  great  extent,  the 
evil  effects  of  a  bad  atmosphere ;  and  so  one's  moral  constitution 
may  be  able  to  ward  off  the  influence  of  aristocratic  and  monar- 
chical surroundings.  But  the  chances  are  strongly  in  favor  of  his 
suffering  from  the  effects  of  both..  If  young  and  docile,  the  gen- 
eral disposition  is  to  yield  and  conform  to  surrounding  associa- 
tions and  circumstances ;  and  as  the  earlier  impressions  are  the 
more  lasting,  one  seldom  recovers  from  the  bias  given  in  childhood 
and  youth."  The  molding  and  foundation  of  character  is  one  of 
the  most  delicate  and  important  of  duties,  which  the  present  gen- 
eration always  has  to  perform  toward  the  rising  generation.  In 
so  far  as  it  fails  in  the  discharge  of  this  duty,  either  through 
thoughtlessness,  carelessness,  mercenariness,  or  neglect,  is  it  re- 
sponsible for  the  future  of  society  and  of  the  nation.  The  indi- 
vidual may  inherit  good  or  bad  propensities,  but  his  character, 
as  a  general  rule,  is  likely  to  be  very  much  what  education  and 
surrounding  circumstances  make  it.  It  is  our  business,  therefore, 
to  look  to  these  things — to  the  educational  influences  and  the 
moral,  social  and  even  political,  as  well  as  religious  surroundings, 
of  our  youth.  If  we  would  have  them  American,  we  should  edu- 
cate them  as  Americans ;  not  in  a  narrow  and  bigoted  sense,  but 
in  all  the  liberal  principles  and  free  and  independent  ways  of  the 
intelligent,  self-governing  American  citizen.  Can  we  do  this  if 
we  send  them  into  a  foreign  land  to  be  educated  by  strangers, 
whose  ways  are  not  our  ways,  and  whose  institutions  are  not  like 
our  institutions  ? 

If  there  are  any  advantages  to  be  enjoyed  in  foreign  schools 
not  possessed  by  our  own,  then  we  would  add  to  ours  these 
advantages,  if  it  is  possible.  But  if  not  possible,  then  give  the 
American  youth  a  thorough  education  at  home  before  sending 
him  abroad.  Let  him  go  only  to  finish  his  education,  after  having 
exhausted  our  educational  resources ;  for  surely  there  can  be  no 
advantages  so  great  as  to  overbalance  those  of  a  home  education, 
and  none  that  may  not  be  enjoyed  after  the  home  education  is 
completed.  When  the  mind  has  been  well  drilled  in  American 
ways  and  grounded  in  American  principles,  and  when  the  mental 
muscle  is  well  developed  and  the  understanding  fairly  opened,  we 
have  little  to  fear  I'rom  bringing  our  young  men  and  women  in 
contact  with  foreign  institutions.  They  cannot  fail  to  perceive 
the  contrast,  and  the  favorable  light  in  which  it  places  the  land 


56  EDUCATION   ABEOAD. 

of  the  free  and  the  government  founded  and  bequeathed  us  by- 
Washington  and  his  compatriots.  We  may  then  reasonably 
expect  their  experience  and  observation  in  foreign  lands  to  make 
them  all  the  more  American  in  feeling  and  aspiration. —  Utica 
Herald. 


It  is  a  real  service  which  *  *  *  ^^    g    q^ 

Northrop,  of  Connecticut,  has  rendered  to  us  all,  in  his  recent 
effort  of  striking,  high  and  clear,  a  note  of  objection  to  the  Ameii- 
can  mania  of  educating  our  boys  and  girls  abroad.  It  is  not 
doubted  that  Europe  can  offer  some  intellectual  advantages  which 
America  does  not  possess.  Nor  is  it  denied  that  a  residence  in 
Europe,  both  for  sight-seeing  and  for  study,  is  itself,  if  properly 
managed  as  to  time  and  duratio;i,  of  the  highest  educational  value, 
and  indeed  indispensable  to  a  complete  culture.  But  it  is  most 
strenuously  to  be  urged  that  there  is  unwisdom  and  danger  in  tak- 
ing an  American  child  for  education  out  of  his  own  country,  and 
keeping  him  out  of  it  through  all  the  most  sensitive  years  of  his 
life.  The  best  preparation  for  an  active  life  in  America  is  to  have 
had  in  America  the  most  of  one's  preparation  for  active  life.  Ex- 
pertness  in  several  languages  is  a  fine  thing,  no  doubt ;  but  it  does 
not  need,  and  it  does  not  deserve,  to  be  acquired  at  the  sacrifice  of 
an  American  boyhood,  and  of  all  the  home-made  earnestness,  of  all 
the  indigenous  fun,  and  of  the  innumerable  and  unspeakable  in- 
spirations and  aspirations  born  of  an  American  school-life.  Whoso 
sends  his  boy  abroad  for  a  period  of  training  to  cover  his  boyhood, 
is  liable  to  receive  him  back  again  by-and-by,  neither  an  American 
boy  nor  an  American  man,  but  that  most  elegant  hybrid — an 
■elegant  polyglot  foreign  gentleman  of  American  birth,  who  has 
been  several  times  all  round  the  circle  of  the  sciences  and  the 
vices,  who  has  lost  the  best  gifts  of  America  and  gained  the  worst 
of  Europe,  and  who  at  last  settles  down  to  home  life,  which  is  to 
him  both  a  mystery  and  a  bore. —  The  Christian  Union^  New  York. 


In  comparing  European  and  American  education,  we  find  the 
two  systems  essentially  different,  both  in  organization  and 
methods.  The  German  Empire,  for  example,  is  largely  despotic 
in  character.  The  schools  are  so  thoroughly  managed  in  the  inter- 
ests of  government,  that  they  necessarily  conform  to  the  imperial 
pattern.  The  individuality  of  the  citizen  is  almost  entirely  lost  in 
the  State. 

The  course  of  study,  the  text-books,  the  sentiments  of  devotion 
to  the  existing  state  of  things  in  the  government,  the  exclusion  of 
all  really  progressive  ideas,  all  unite  to  make  one  a  mere  tool 
in  the  hand  of  the  government.  In  the  university  the  instruction 
is  conveyed  almost  wholly  by  lectures.  The  use  of  text-books 
and   examinations   is   almost   entirely   neglected.      The  lectures. 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  57 

given  in  a  language  foreign  to  American  youth,  are  at  best  but  im- 
perfectly understood. 

A  student  in  a  German  university  writes  thus  to  the  Yale  Gour- 
ant:  "The  instruction  in  the  university  consists  entirely  of  lec- 
tures. The  student  selects  his  own  course.  Except  the  recom- 
mendation of  certain  books  for  reading  or  reference,  recitation 
or  instruction  through  books  has  no  existence :  likewise  there  are 
no  examinations.  A  large  number  of  students  move  about  from 
one  university  to  another,  according  as  they  wish  to  hear  this  or 
that  lecturer.  They  spend  about  three  years  in  this  way.  As  the 
German  student's  mode  of  work  is  very  different  from  that  of  the 
American,  so  is  the  general  mode  of  life.  The  students  are  formed 
into  societies  or  '  corps.'  These  form  an  important  factor  in  the 
student's  life.  Their  avowed  purpose  is  social  enjoyment.  What 
is  meant  by  '  social  enjoyment '  in  all  these  clubs  is  guzzling  beer, 
smoking,  howling  and  gaming  all  night.  Wednesday  and  Satur- 
day nights  are  rendered  hideous  by  these  revelings.  Duelling  is 
common  among  German  students.  W^ith  the  exception  of  Fresh- 
men, almost  no  'corps'  student  is  seen  without  his  gashes  and 
scars,  produced  by  fencing  with  the  rapier." 

This  picture  of  German  student  life  needs  no  comment.  Our 
American  schools  have  before  them  a  different  ideal  from  this. 
We  live  on  a  different  soil,  iSreathe  a  different  air,  have  different 
civil  and  religious  institutions.  Whatever  is  good  in  the  Old 
World  we  are  ready  to  adopt.  Whatever  is  suited  to  the  genius 
of  our  institutions  we  can  assimilate.  Whatever  is  necessary  to 
our  peculiar  conditions  and  growth,  we  can  incorporate.  Ameri- 
can genius  need  not  hide  its  head.  Already  her  authors  and 
scholars  have  a  world-wide  •fame.  Already  her  systems,  both  of 
common  schools  and  of  free  government,  are  the  wonder  and  ad- 
miration of  the  world.  As  wealth  and  prosperity  comes  in,  let  not 
wisdom  and  patriotism  depart.  We  can  educate  American  youth 
at  home,  as  no  university  in  Europe  can  do  it.  The  fatherhood  of 
God,  the  brotherhood  of  man,  the  equality  of  all  men  before  the 
law,  and  many  other  distinctive  American  ideas,  which  our  youth 
need  to  learn,  and  which  ought  to  become  a  part  of  their  manhood, 
can  only  be  learned  in  America,  and  as  the  character  is  forming  in 
youth.  American  education  aims  not  only  at  the  development  of 
the  individual,  but  at  the  means  by  which  each  rising  generation 
is  put  in  possession  of  the  attainments  of  previous  generations,  and 
becomes  capable  of  improving  and  transmitting  this  inheiitance. 
It  secures  the  regular  progress  of  society.  It  fashions  childhood 
and  moulds  the  character  of  youth,  by  instilling  into  their  minds 
the  thoughts  and  purposes  that  the  commonwealth  is  designed  to 
establish  and  perpetuate. 

The  United  States  as  a  nation  has  a  marked  and  distinct  char- 
acter. Its  institutions,  literature,  arts,  aims  and  hopes  are  all  its 
own.  It  is  working  out  its  own  destiny.  Now  to  preserve  the 
life  and  character  of  this  nation,  to  maintain  and  advance  its  insti- 
tutions, is  the  province  of  our  system  of  education.     Aristotle 


58  EDUCATION   ABKOAD. 

says  :  "  The  most  effective  way  of  preserving  a  State  is  to  bring 
up  the  citizens  in  the  spirit  of  the  government,  to  fashion  or,  as  it 
were,  to  cast  them  into  the  mould  of  the  constitution." — The 
Western^  St.  Louis. 


We  regard  it  as  unquestionable  that  the  best  education  for  an 
American  is  to  be  obtained  at  home  and  in  American  institutions. 
No  parent  who  has  good  judgment  will,  as  a  matter  of  choice, 
send  a  mere  child  to  a  foreign  land  to  be  educated,  unless  it  be 
for  foreign  residence  or  some  foreign  service.  And  even  in  such  a 
case  it  would  be  far  better  that  the  foundation  should  be  laid  at 
home.  There  are  no  better  schools  in  the  world  for  the  training 
and  teaching  of  children  from  the  beginning  than  are  to  be  found 
in  our  own  land.  For  specific  acquisitions,  and  in  some  particular 
departments,  foreign  schools  may  afford  superior  advantages ;  but 
for  a  complete  education  of  the  physical,  mental  and  moral  powers, 
and  under  proper  religious  influence,  we  are  satisfied  from  observa- 
tion both  at  home  and  abroad,  that  there  is  no  country  in  which 
an  American  child  can  be  so  well  educated  as  in  our  own.  Neither 
cramming  nor  polishing  constitutes  education.  A  child  must  be 
taught  to  think  and  to  investigate,  and  this  is  done  nowhere  more 
successfully  than  in  many  of  our  own  schools. 

The  same  may  be  said  with  regard  to  the  higher  education  of 
our  youth.  American  colleges  are  now  so  thoroughly  equipped 
with  the  requisite  facilities  for  study,  with  professors  and  lecturers, 
men  eminent  in  their  several  departments,  and  our  institutions  for 
professional  training  are  of  such  a  Jiigh  order,  that  there  is  no 
occasion  for  a  young  man  to  go  abroad  for  study.  Nine  out  of 
ten  can  study  to  far  greater  advantage  at  home.  We  have  no 
hesitation  in  saying  that  American  institutions,  taking  the  same 
number  of  youth,  would  turn  out  a  larger  proportion  of  men  well 
informed  and  well  prepared  for  the  active  duties  of  life  than  any 
foreign  institution  with  which  we  are  acquainted.  The  training 
whi(;h  a  young  man  receives  in  an  American  university,  while  on 
some  points  it  may  not  be  so  thorough,  or  the  knowledge .  he 
acquires  so  profound,  is  on  the  whole  more  general  and  far  more 
practical  than  in  English  or  Continental  universities.  In  very  rare 
instances,  if  at  all,  would  we  advise  any  young  man  to  forego  the 
advantages  of  a  home  education  for  the  hope  of  what  he  might 
acquire  abroad. 

For  one  desiring  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  European  study,  a 
far  better  plan  would  be  to  complete  a  regular  course  in  some  one 
of  our  well  furnished  colleges,  and  then  perfect  his  training  and 
extend  his  acquisitions  by  study  under  some  of  the  eminent  pro- 
fessors of  the  old  world.  This  would  be  to  gain  the  advantages 
of  both,  and  to  place  the  matter  upon  the  right  foundation  ;  a 
good  home  education.  There  is  much  to  be  gained  by  foreign 
study  as  well  as  by  foreign  travel ;  but  the  loss  would  be  greater 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  59 

than  the  gain  for  any  one  who  intends  to  spend  his  active  life  in 
his  native  land,  to  seek  his  preparation  for  it  by  early  education 
abroad.  By  such  a  course  he  would,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  be 
unfitted  for  his  future  course  rather  than  qualified  for  it.  Home 
education  for  American  youth  should  be  the  rule  to  which  the 
exceptions  must  be  very  rare. — New  York  Observer. 


We  have  seen,  within  a  few  mouths,  much  to  our  gratification, 
various  articles  in  the  nature  of  a  protest  against  the  sending  of 
American  youth  to  Europe  to  be  educated.  We  have  specially  in 
mind  an  article,  which  we  heartily  endorse,  from  the  Hon.  B.  G. 
Northrop.  For  advanced  scholars  pursuing  the  study  of  some 
sciences  as  their  specialties,  and  for  those  who  wish  to  perfect 
themselves  in  the  speaking  of  the  modern  tongues,  the  schools 
of  Europe  furnish  facilities  which  do  not  exist  on  this  continent. 
But  for  such  disciplinary  education  as  our  colleges  can  give, 
such  professional  training  as  our  universities  can  impart,  and 
for  accomplishments  which  the  average  man  of  learning  is,  in 
our  country,  supposed  to  have  acquired,  there  is  no  necessity 
nor  any  other  sufficient  reason  for  going  abroad.  There  is  not 
a  particle  of  evidence  that  any  foreign  institutions  of  learning 
are,  on  the  whole,  superior  to  our  own,  except  in  a  few  branches 
of  scientific  research.  Therefore,  nothing  is  gained  on  the  whole, 
intellectually,  by  the  sending  of  our  lads  and  young  men  to  Euro- 
pean schools.  A  little  is  gained,  mayhap,  in  the  line  of  aesthetics 
and  the  cultivation  of  the  taste ;  but  the  power  of  art  is  so  often 
abused  and  made  an  instrument  of  corruption  that  the  gain  is 
more  than  offset  by  it.  Then,  youth  sent  abroad  suffer.  They 
suffer,  if  not  from  real  home-sickness,  from  loss  of  family  influence, 
and  home  feeling,  and  domestic  attachments,  and  the  nameless 
charms  of  American  sociality.  They  suffer  from  the  loss  of  patri- 
otism. It  is  more  than  many  older  men  can  do  to  resist  the  des- 
potic tendencies  in  the  thought  and  speech  of  the  continent  of 
Europe.  There  the  people  sneer  at  our  country^  our  government^ 
our  free  institutions,  and  the  very  principles  of  liberty.  And  so 
our  young  men  learn  to  belabor  their  own  country,  and  to  speak 
disparagingly  of  its  prospects.  They  suffer  from  the  loss  of  man- 
liness. Society  there  exists  in  stratifications.  Things  are  stereo- 
typed. Matters  go  by  some  unexplained  inevitableness.  The 
individual  is  lost  sight  of.  One  must  watch  to  see  what  will  turn 
up.  Foresight,  plan,  self-reliance,  energy,  manly  self-advancement, 
are  not  dreamed  of  as  parts  of  the  personal  development.  And  so 
many  a  young  man  returns  from  abroad  with  all  the  "  vim  "  taken 
out  of  him.  They  suffer  from  a  loss  of  conscientious  morality. 
In  Europe,  the  distinction  is  small  between  manners  and  morals. 
Good  manners  are  supposed  to  include  good  morals,  and  the 
morals  are  not  much  looked  after.  A  very  thin  partition  divides 
vice  from  virtue.     The  social  atmosphere  is  commonly  an  infection* 


60  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

and  impure  one,  and  all  become  more  or  less  tainted  in  it.  And 
they  suffer  from  the  loss  of  confidence  in  the  reality  and  simplicity 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  scepticism,  the  ritualism,  the  ra- 
tionalism, of  foreign  countries  unsettle  and  dethrone  their  thou- 
sands every  year.  Cathedral,  choir,  pageantry,  pomp,  and  other 
extravagances,  and  the  reaction  from  these  things,  combine  to  lead 
multitudes  astray.  Our  belief  is,  that  the  longer  our  students  and 
other  young  men  can  be  kept  away  from  Europe,  the  better  it  will 
be  for  them,  both  as  scholars  and  as  men. — ITie  Pacific^  San  Fran- 
cisco. 


In  the  great  and  luxurious  capitals  of  Europe,  art,  culture, 
taste  and  aesthetics  generally  have  been  long  cultivated,  and  there 
has  been  great  necessity  for  study  and  proficiency  therein.  For 
show,  display  and  amusement  are  great  forces  employed  in  the 
government  of  monarchical  countries.  Hence  the  statesmen  of 
Europe  constantly  employ  them  as  effective  means  to  repress 
thought  and  to  paralyze  efforts  for  liberty. 

But  education  in  these  things  is  universal  in  foreign  countries. 
It  is  inculcated  in  public  schools  and  in  private  academies.  It  is 
taught  in  Church  institutions  and  in  colleges;  it  is  impressed 
upon  the  minds  of  youth  by  the  oration,  the  lecture,  the  press  and 
the  pageant.  Such  instruction  is  the  atmosphere  of  Europe,  and 
few  can  resist  the  influence  which  the  prevailing  and  universal 
ideas  and  tastes  have  upon  them. 

Now  the  ideas  and  teachings  of  American  institutions  of  all 
kinds  are  radically  opposed  to  all  this.  Intelligence,  thought, 
simplicity  and  self-reliance  are  the  fundamental  ideas  and  princi- 
ples of  our  system.  American  youth  are  here  brought  under  the 
influence  of  that  atmosphere,  and  it  leads  to  very  different  results. 

It  is  estimated  from  reliable  data  that  7iot  less  than  fifty 
thousand  Americans  are  residing  in  Europe^  i.  e.,  that  number  are 
on  the  average  all  the  while  remainijig  there.  The  periods  of 
sojourn  vary  from  a  few  months  to  as  many  years,  and  it  is  evi- 
dent that  they  are  exerting  an  influence  and  an  educating  power 
on  those  old  communities. 

Those  Americans  who  live  and  are  educated  abroad,  feel  and 
exhibit  the  leaven  of  evil  which  is  mixed  with  their  ideas.  They 
come  back  very  much  changed,  and  bring  European  ideas  with 
them,  and  spread  the  principles  among  their  friends  and  associ- 
ates. On  the  other  hand,  those  who  come  from  Europe  already 
leavened  by  nature  and  culture  do  not  get  rid  of  that  evil,  but 
remain  the  fond  admirers  and  supporters  of  the  old  country. 
But  we  think  that  with  adults  Americanism  is  harder  to  wear  off 
than  Europeanism  is.  Still  we  doubt  whether  those  who  remain 
abroad  long  enough  to  be  taken  and  charmed  with  European 
ideas,  and  who  endeavor  in  their  home  life  and  in  their  public  and 
religious  life  to  put  them  in  practice,  are  the  best  and  most  useful 
citizens.     They  commonly  show  in  some  way  that  they  are  not  in 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  61 

full  sympathy  with  us,  and  the  people  treat  them  with  suspicion 
and  coldness.  The  danger  to  our  free  and  republican  institutions 
from  this  source,  therefore,  we  do  not  think  to  be  imminent  nor 
of  large  proportions. 

But  there  is  another  class  of  our  American  youth  for  whom  we 
have  long  felt  some  apprehension.  Besides  the  tourist,  the  pleas- 
ure-seeker, the  invalid  and  the  economist,  there  is  a  large  and 
increasing  class  of  youth  of  both  sexes  who  go  abroad  to  be  edu- 
cated. They  are  of  the  most  tender  age,  ranging  from  eight  or 
nine  years  to  eighteen  or  nineteen.  They  go  as  members  of  the 
family,  their  parents  remaining  with  them,  or  they  are  placed  in 
seminaries  and  boarding-schools  especially  provided  for  that  class 
of  students.  The  text-books,  the  methods,  the  routine  and  exer- 
cises are  all  European.  Monarchical  and  aristocratic,  absolute,  or 
despotic  ecclesiastical  ideas  and  principles  are  steadily  and  only 
inculcated. 

We  do  not  find  many  youth  of  European  families  in  our  col- 
leges and  seminaries,  coming  here  for  purposes  of  education. 
The  idea  of  doing  so  would  seem  preposterous  to  foreign  parents. 
They  are  persuaded  that  their  schools  are  the  best  in  the  world, 
their  religious  ways  the  standard,  and  they  would  fear  the  effect  of 
the  inculcation  of  republican  ideas.  Political  circles  would  mark 
such  persons  as  unsafe  for  promotion  and  office,  no  matter  how 
highly  educated,  and  hence  the  ambitious  shun  such  a  record. 

Now  it  may  be  that  our  political  economists  will  have  to  take 
up  this  matter,  for  the  safety  of  our  institutions.  Our  schools  of 
all  grades  are  as  good  as  any  in  the  world,  and  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  up  a  generation  to  preserve  and  improve  our  institutions, 
they  are  the  best  in  the  world.  Professor  Porter,  of  Queen's  Col- 
lege, Belfast,  very  recently  paid  a  very  high  compliment  to  our 
public  school  system,  and  to  the  "people's  colleges,"  which  are 
the  result  of  the  practical  application  of  our  system.  And  he 
gave  that  preference  and  deserved  praise  after  close  personal 
observation  and  study. — Tke  Episcopalian^  Philadelphia. 


It  is  growing  to  be  an  important  question,  whether  our  coun- 
trymen are  acting  wisely  who  send  their  boys  and  girls  abroad 
for  education,  by  European  methods,  in  European  schools,  acade- 
mies and  colleges.  Certainly,  the  custom  is  now  quite  common 
among  those  who  have  the  means  for  its  indulgence ;  and  it  is 
likely  to  become  still  more  prevalent. 

It  is  hardly  to  be  doubted  that  in  a  religious  aspect  the  custom 
is  not  promising  of  good  results.  Except  in  Great  Britain,  per- 
haps there  is  no  part  of  Europe  in  which  youth  at  school  or  col- 
lege are  not  subject  to  the  insidious  instillment  of  dangerous  spec- 
ulative theories  concerning  God  and  His  revelation  of  Himself 
and  of  His  works  in  Holy  Scripture.  There  is  scarcely  a  faculty 
in  any  of  the  continental  colleges  the  members  of  which  are  not 


62  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

largely  infected  with  religious  views — when  they  have  any — 
which  are  unsound  or  positively  dangerous.  The  same  holds  true 
of  schools  in  the  grades  next  to  colleges,  and  which  derive  their 
tone  and  inspiration  in  a  powerful  degree  from  them.  Parents 
will  find,  therefore,  we  fear,  that  the  religious  sentiment  of  their 
children  will  be  seriously  impaired  by  their  contact  with  the 
almost  universal  scepticism,  mysticism,  and  materialism  which 
prevail  in  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the  continent,  and  which 
color  its  literature,  its  science,  and  its  polite  society. 

The  transplantation  of  our  youth  to  Europe  for  their  education 
is  equally  full  of  peril  in  its  social  bearings.  What  becomes  of 
the  influence  of  home  upon  the  youth  of  both  sexes  who  are  thus 
withdrawn  from  parental  guidance  and  restraint?  These  home 
influences,  so  tender  and  so  strong,  so  minute  and  so  comprehen- 
sive, are  the  subtlest  and  the  most  potent  of  all  the  processes  of 
education  that  can  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the  plastic  minds  of 
the  youth  of  a  country.  They  are  an  essential  part  of  education, 
of  which  none  can  be  deprived  without  a  serious  injury  to  the 
entire  range  of  the  nobler  afiections  and  sentiments.  Nothing 
that  may  be  done  by  a  sojourn  in  Europe  to  quicken  or  sharpen 
the  intellect  can  serve  as  a  sufiicient  substitute  for  the  influences 
and  training  of  the  family — the  example  of  and  the  intercourse 
with  father,  mother,  and  sisters,  at  home. 

There  is  peril,  also,  in  this  custom  in  a  political  view  of  it. 
Youth  growing  up  in  a  foreign  land  are  gradually  weaned  from 
and  forget  the  land  of  their  nativity,  and  thus  lose  their  national 
distinctiveness.  They  cease  to  be  operated  upon  by  the  tradi- 
tions, to  be  moved  by  the  histories,  or  to  be  animated  by  the  sym- 
pathies which  quicken  and  keep  alive  the  patriotism  of  a  people. 
They  lose  their  attachments  foi*  places — for  their  native  village, 
city,  State,  or  nation — and  become  cosmopolitan  and  un-Ameri- 
canized.  They  insensibly  abate  in  their  attachment  to  our  insti- 
tutions, and  as  insensibly  are  taught  to  depreciate  our  form  of 
government,  and  to  discard  the  political  truths  upon  which  our 
republic  was  founded.  No  exalted  love  of  country,  and  no  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  its  needs  and  capabilities,  can  be  expected 
from  those  who  have  been  nurtured  through  the  generous  season 
of  youth  on  a  foreign  soil. 

There  is,  moreover,  danger  that  the  withdrawal  of  our  youth 
abroad  for  their  education,  if  it  proceeds  as  largely  as  there  is 
now  reason  to  apprehend,  will  exert  a  seriously  injurious  reflex 
influence  upon  our  higher  educational  institutions  at  home,  by  the 
abstraction  of  the  material  on  which  to  work,  and  of  the  support 
and  patronage  which  are  essential  to  their  progress  and  well- 
being.  Besides,  we  all  know  the  tyranny  of  fashion ;  and  if  it 
should  become  the  fashion  for  all  our  promising  and  brilliant 
youth  to  look  forward  to  the  completion  of  their  education  in 
Europe,  it  cannot  fail  to  be  a  serious  blow  to  the  cause  of  higher 
education  in  this  country. 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  63 

As  the  result  of  our  own  observation,  we  have  not  discovered 
that  any  intellectual  superiority  has,  in  fact,  been  attained  by 
those  of  our  youth  who  have  been  educated  in  European  acade- 
mies or  colleges.  As  compared  with  those  who  have  been  edu- 
cated at  home,  they  have  reached  no  higher  grade  in  culture,  in 
scientific  acquirement,  or  in  substantial  mental  power ;  and  they 
are  not  as  well  fitted  to  cope  with  the  practical  needs  of  our  polit- 
ical, social,  moral,  and  commercial  surroundings.  With  a  few 
exceptions,  they  rather  resemble  hot-house  plants,  which  are  prone 
to  wither  or  be  stunted  by  the  process  of  repeated  transplanting, 
if  the  skies  prove  adverse. —  Christian  Intelligencer^  New  York. 


It  is  becoming  one  of  the  fashionable  follies  to  send  American 
boys  and  girls  to  foreign  boarding-schools.  Being  extra-expen- 
sive and  rather  the  aristocratic  thing  to  do  is  enough  to  settle  the 
question  with  many;  and  there  are  others  who,  without  much 
thought,  assume  that  there  must  be  some  superior  advantages  in 
the  training  of  European  schools.  That  there  are  a  few  special 
advantages  cannot  be  denied ;  but  when  the  account  is  made  up 
and  the  balance  struck,  it  is  hardly  a  question  but  that  an  educa- 
tion abroad  will  result  in  decided  injustice  to  our  American  youth. 
The  acquisition  of  continental  languages  is  one  of  the  special 
advantages  better  gained  by  such  an  education.  It  is  a  graceful 
accomplishment  to  speak  French,  German  'or  Italian  with  vernac- 
ular fluency  and  the  proper  accent.  But  it  is  very  questionable 
whether  the  aTcrage  exigencies  of  life  will  ever  make  it  of  much 
positive  advantage.  The  general  benefit  of  travel  and  intercourse 
with  polite  society  in  forming  the  manners  and  address  of  a  young 
person  is  something,  especially  if  he  be  accompanied  by  his  parents 
or  other  family  friends.  But  having  said  this,  let  us  glance  at  the 
per  contra  side. 

The  foremost  objection  is,  that  it  exiles  and  un- Americanizes  our 
young  folks  just  at  the  formative  period  when  it  is  so  important 
that  they  should  be  surrounded  by  the  atmosphere  and  spirit  of 
their  native  land.  ''  The  man  without  a  country  "  was  painfully 
conscious  of  his  unhappy  lot,  but  the  boy  without  a  country  is  an 
unconscious  sufferer.  He  will  get  over  home-sickness  as  he  does 
sea-sickness,  and  at  that  receptive  age  readily  takes  in  foreign 
ideas  and  takes  on  foreign  airs  and  customs,  to  the  real  detriment 
of  his  future  character  and  success  in  life.  The  American  home 
and  school,  especially  the  public  school,  are  the  natural  out- 
growths of  the  American  spirit,  and  every  American  boy  has  a 
natural  right  to  grow  up  in  their  congenial  soil.  It  is  a  positive 
injustice  to  banish  him  from  such  surroundings,  and  tear  away 
and  transplant  him  into  a  foreign  soil  just  when  the  tender  and 
multitudinous  fibers  of  his  being  are  rooting  themselves  and  gath- 
ering strength.  The  German  home  and  school  are  the  outgrow^th 
of  the  German  spirit,  and  as  to  the  French  home  and  education, 


64  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

the  least  said  the  better.  Bismarck  is  a  fair  product  of  German 
education,  and  Louis  Napoleon  was  not  a  very  unfair  specimen  of 
French  development,  and  the  puny  and  vapid  prince  imperial  has 
had  probably  the  best  done  for  him  that  French  education  could 
do  for  a  boy.  But  none  of  these  characters  would  run  well  in 
our  country,  as  measured  by  their  prestige  and  success  abroad. 
Precisely  the  same  line  of  argument  applies  to  the  education  of 
our  young  girls. 

By  and  by,  when  they  can  see  and  judge  for  themselves,  hav- 
ing been  rooted  and  grounded  in  the  American  faith,  let  them  go 
abroad.  We  have  none  of  these  objections  to  urge  against  the 
after  advantages  of  a  reasonable  range  of  foreign  travel.  But 
enough  of  Paris  and  Vienna  is  already  imported  here.  The  malaria 
of  foreign  immoralities  of  idea  and  custom  is  sufficiently  permeat- 
ing our  society,  without  our  taking  pains  to  settle  down  our  boys 
and  girls,  during  their  most  absorbent  period,  right  in  the  midst 
of  it.  We  are  glad  to  see  that  many  thoughtful  and  intelligent 
Americans,  who  had  ample  opportunities  for  observation  abroad, 
most  fully  and  emphatically  confirm  these  opinions.  Mr.  North- 
rop, whose  large  experience  as  an  educator  entitles  his  decisions 
to  special  weight,  in  the  closing  lecture  of  his  recent  course  before 
the  Lowell  Listitute,  while  setting  forth  fully  and  clearly  all  the 
points  of  peculiar  excellence  and  possible  superiority  belonging  to 
European  schools,  at  the  same  time  urged  the  strongest  reason 
why  American  youth  should  not  be  educated  abroad.  As  to  the 
outcry  from  some  quarters  against  our  public  schools  as  being 
"  godless,"  and  deprecating  the  proposed  substitute  of  parochial 
and  sectarian  schools,  Mr.  Northrop  asserts  that  our  American 
and  unsectarian  plan  of  teaching  only  the  universal  and  compre- 
hensive ethical  principles  of  a  common  Christianity  is  far  more 
effective  than  the  continuous  drilling  in  religious  dogmas  and  cer- 
emonies, and  that  in  those  countries  where  they  teach  the  cate- 
chism more  than  Christianity,  it  is  at  the  practical  expense  of 
Christianity.  Infidelity  and  immorality  actually  most  abound 
where  an  hour  each  day  is  specially  devoted  to  so-called  religious 
instruction. — Springfield  Republican. 


We  have  for  years  held  to  the  views  set  forth  and  defended  by 
Hon.  B.  G.  Northrop,  as  to  the  serious  error  many  American 
families  are  falling  into,  in  sending  their  young  children  abroad 
to  be  educated  in  foreign  schools.  There  are  no  important 
advantages  to  be  gained  in  placing  lads  in  any  of  the  great 
classical  schools  of  England,  and  many  marked  disadvantages 
arising  from  the  peculiar  discipline  of  these  institutions,  and  the 
traditionary  customs  still  in  force  in  them.  The  curriculum 
of  these  schools  is  narrow,  although  the  classical  drill  may  be 
thorough  enough.  The  provision  for  the  training  of  young  ladies 
in  Europe  is,  to  say  the  least,  not  in  advance  of  portions  of  the 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  65 

United  States.  We  have  repeatedly  conversed  with  both  parents 
and  young  people  who  have  passed  years  upon  the  European  con- 
tinent, the  latter  attending  the  schools  in  Switzerland  and  Ger- 
many. The  one  advantage  gained  has  been  a  correct  and  ready- 
pronunciation  of  the  German  or  French  tongue,  or  both,  but  this 
has  been  secured  at  a  great  loss,  socially,  morally  and  intellectu- 
ally. With  one  accomplishment,  these  young  students  have  found 
themselves  much  behind  their  American  peers  in  general  knowl- 
edge. The  schools  they  have  attended,  instead  of  being  agreeable 
and  holding  upon  them  with  pleasant  memories,  are  only  referred 
to  with  positive  disgust.  After  young  gentlemen  or  ladies  have 
well  advanced  in  their  rudimental  English  studies,  have  become 
acquainted  with  the  grammatical  construction  of  European  lan- 
guages, and  learned  to  translate  them  freely,  then  a  residence, 
under  proper  guardianship,  in  France  or  Germany,  to  secure  the 
native  pronunciation,  or  to  attend  the  learned  advanced  course  of 
lectures,  or  to  cultivate,  under  extraordinary  advantages,  the 
aesthetic  arts,  is  certainly  to  be  greatly  desired.  Even  at  this 
stage  of  their  education,  to  send  young  persons,  of  either  sex, 
without  suitable  family  companionship,  is  a  serious  experiment, 
attended  with  great  discomforts,  and  often  with  no  little  moral 
peril.  The  cheapness  of  living  in  Europe  has  been  one  great  reason, 
on  the  part  of  persons  with  limited  means,  for  seeking  its  educa- 
tional opportunities.  This  advantage  is  every  day  decreasing. 
With  the  increasing  flood  of  travelers,  and  of  temporary  residents 
from  America  and  Great  Britain,  ordinary  family  expenses  have 
greatly  advanced.  The  Franco-Prussian  war,  like  our  own,  by 
awakening  a  spirit  of  speculation,  has  enhanced  the  value  of  almost 
all  forms  of  merchandise,  as  well  as  of  land  and  rents,  throughout 
central  Europe.  It  costs  fifty  per  cent,  more  to  live  in  any  of  the 
university  towns  than  ten  years  since.  Dr.  Northrop,  from  per- 
sonal examination,  clearly  shows  the  advantages  of  our  public- 
school  training  for  young  pupils  over  the  foreign  public  or  board- 
ing schools,  and  points  out  distinctly  the  evil  influences,  of  a 
political  and  moral  character,  as  well  as  the  great  intellectual 
loss,  attending  the  education  of  our  children  abroad.  This  paper, 
from  such  a  source,  will  awaken  thought  in  the  minds  of  intelli- 
gent parents  harboring  such  a  purpose,  and  hinder  any  hasty  act 
of  this  nature  which  may  prove  of  irremediable  injury  to  a  lad  or 
girl. — Zioii's  Herald^  Boston. 


We  fully  agree  in  opinion  with  those  who  look  upon  the  expa- 
triation of  youth  during  the  all-important  years  of  their  early 
education  as  extremely  perilous.  It  is  surely  much  better  to  labor 
for  the  elevation  of  our  own  institutions  of  learning,  than  to  look 
to  other  lands  for  the  training  of  our  future  citizens.  To  imbibe 
the  aristocratic  ideas  of  monarchical  nations  would  fit  the  youth 
for  contented  citizenship  of  those  lands,  but  may  unfit  them  for 


6Q  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

their  future  as  republicans.  Let  us  learn  all  we  can  of  the  wisdom 
of  other  lands,  and  profit  by  their  experience,  but  by  no  means 
expose  our  youth  to  the  possible  demoralization  of  a  French  or 
German  boarding-school  during  the  years  when  their  characters 
are  most  impressible.  If  parents  accompany  their  children  the 
dangers  are  lessened,  as  they  may  take  with  them  the  restraints 
and  inspirations  of  home ;  but  far  better  would  it  be  to  offer  strong 
pecuniary  inducements  to  accomplished  educators,  to  make  our 
country  their  home,  and  aid  us  in  the  work  of  training  our  youtli 
for  the  great  future  that  lies  before  them  as  citizens  of  this  favored 
land. — Friends  hitelligencer^  Philadelphia. 


Just  now  the  tide  is  setting  in  for  parents  and  guardians  to  take 
their  children  or  wards  abroad,  with  the  view  of  visiting  the 
Exposition  at  Vienna,  and  various  other  places  on  the  continent 
during  the  summer,  and  then  in  the  fall  fix  them  at  some  school 
in  France  or  Germany.  It  is  urged  that  this  course  will  make  them 
refined  in  their  tastes  and  manners,  and  that  the  schools  abroad 
are  better,  and  the  course  of  education  is  more  thorough. 

Plausible,  however,  as  all  this  is,  we  are  convinced  it  is  a  seri- 
ous mistake,  and  the  consequences  of  this  foreign  residence,  these 
foreign  studies,  and  these  foreign  associations,  in  a  necessary  sep- 
aration from  their  own  country  at  the  most  susceptible  period  of 
their  lives,  are  of  the  most  serious  character. 

At  some  of  the  universities  in  Germany,  or  divinity  halls  in 
Scotland,  or  the  hospitals  and  clinics  of  Paris  and  elsewhere, 
young  men,  on  the  completion  of  their  course  here,  may  perhaps 
go  and  spend  a  season  with  advantage.  But  to  be  placed  at  an 
earlier  period  of  life  in  the  schools  of  almost  any  part  of  Europe, 
and  thus  be  separated  from  home  and  country,  cannot  but  be 
attended  with  serious  risks. 

Is  it  asked,  "  What  are  the  grounds  for  this  position  ?  " 

1.  The  systems  of  education  or  training  abroad  are  not,  as  a 
whole,  and  for  the  thorough  practicalities  of  life,  equal  to  those  in 
our  own  country. 

2.  Separation  from  home  and  country  during  the  most  impor- 
tant formative  period  of  life  cannot  but  tend  to  undermine  that 
love  of  kindred  and  country  which  always  goes  so  far  to  make  the 
most  devoted  patriots. 

3.  The  very  fact  of  a  young  man  or  woman  being  sent  abroad 
to  study,  implies  an  inferiority  in  our  schools  and  educational 
institutions  at  home;  and  thus  the  whole  tendency  is  to  have 
such  persons  enter  upon  life  with  a  feeling  that  their  own  coun- 
try is  not  equal  to  foreign  countries. 

4.  With  human  nature  as  it  is,  the  tendency  of  this  foreign 
course  will  be  to  give  aristocratic  ideas,  and  of  superiority  in  soci- 
ety and  in  practical  life,  and  thus  unfit  such  persons  to  engage  in 
almost  any  profession  or  calling  here. —  W.  TT.  Presbyterian^  JPhil- 

'  la. 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  67 

We  have  heard  much,  probably  too  much,  said  in  favor  of  the 
institutions  of  Gennany.  In  the  study  of  the  classics  and  in 
gesthetic  culture  no  doubt  they  do  excel.  In  fitting  the  American 
pupil  for  practical  life  in  America,  they  are  as  far  from  us  in  points 
of  adaptability  as  they  are  in  statute  miles.  If  the  schools  of 
Prussia  or  Austria  were  considered  in  regard  to  their  adaptability 
to  the  wants  of  American  life  and  citizenship,  they  would  be  seen 
to  be  foreign  in  more  senses  than  one. 

The  father  says,  "  J/y  son  shall  receive  a /ore^^^^  education." 
And  so  he  will  if  you  deny  him  tl\e  associations  and  republican 
influences  of  his  own  country  during  eight  or  ten  years  of  the  best 
part  of  his  life,  and  place  him  under  the  unstimulating  and  incom- 
patible monarchial  influences  of  another's  "  Fader  land." 

To  be  sure  their  higher  universities  are  magnificent  in  plans, 
architecture  and  appliances,  but  the  instruction  there  given  is 
classical  and  presents  a  grand  array  of  literary  achievements, 
while  its  main  practical  teaching  is  that  the  man  is  the  creature  of 
the  government  and  exists  for  the  government.  How  unfitting  is 
this  for  American  life. 

The  youth  returns  and  for  a  few  weeks  may  live  on  the  flourish 
of  his  "  foreign  airs,"  but  soon  awakens  from  the  delusion  to  see 
every  American  energy  outstripping  him,  every  republican  princi- 
ple avoiding  his  tainted  touch,  and  the  time  in  which  he  should 
have  gro^  n  into  the  sympathy  of  his  own  country  and  her  inter- 
ests, gone,  gone  forever. 

Of  the  moral  education  of  the  American  pupil  while  in  Europe, 
the  most  that  can  be  said  is  that  it  is  questionable.  An  inter- 
change of  thought  between  nations  we  would  do  all  in  our  power 
to  promote,  but  the  undeveloped  mind  of  the  pupil  in  no  way  ac- 
complishes such  a  comparison. 

That  the  Germans  laugh  at  our  experiment  is  evident  from  the 
fact  that  they  have  established  private  schools  for  foreigners  which 
are  vastly  inferior  to  their  public  institutions. — Iowa  /School 
Journal. 

Hon.  B.  G.  Northrop  has  taken  in  hand  a  growing  evil,  with  a 
determined  purpose  to  check  it  if  possible.  We  refer  to  the  prac- 
tice of  sending  our  American  youth  to  Europe  for  their  education. 
He  has  begun  by  the  publication  of  an  able,  and  rather  startling, 
article  on  the  subject.  He  proposes  to  follow  up  the  work,  and 
in  this  he  is  aided  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  friends  of  educa- 
tion in  the  country.  We  do  not  understand  that  his  work  has 
reference  to  men  of  some  maturity  and  culture,  college  graduates 
and  others,  who  go  to  pursue  extended  studies  in  the  Universities, 
but  rather  to  quite  young  persons  who  go  to  Europe  for  early 
training  in  the  public  schools,  or  worse  still,  in  the  boarding 
schools.  Mr.  Northrop,  by  his  long  connection  with  educational 
aff*airs  in  this  country,  by  his  extensive  acquaintance,  and  his  per- 
sonal observation  of  the  schools  of  which  he  speaks,  is  eminently 
qualified  for  the  work  he  has  undertaken. 


68  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

Mr.  Northrop's  paper  shows  that,  for  the  purpose  of  intellectual 
drill  and  acquisition,  our  own  institutions  are  better  suited  to  the 
wants  of  our  youth  than  those  they  will  find  in  France  or  Prussia. 
— Illinois  Schoolmaster. 


Few  Americans  have  had  better  opportunities  of  studying 
German  schools  and  institutions,  or  of  mingling  with  American 
students  abroad,  than  Rev.  J.  P.  Thompson,  D.D.,  long  a  resi- 
dent in  Berlin.  I  therefore?  asked  his  opinion  on  the  question 
of  educating  our  youth  abroad.  He  replied  in  full  and  elaborate 
letters,  appearing  in  the  New  York  Observer^  from  which  I 
condense  the  following  statements  : 

The  question  of  sending  American  youth  abroad  to  be  educated 
is  of  high  public  importance,  since  it  concerns,  in  no  small  degree, 
the  future  of  American  scholarship,  literature,  patriotism,  manners 
and  religion.  As  a  contribution  towards  these  principles,  I  pro- 
pose to  give  an  analysis  of  the  German  and  American  methods 
and  courses  of  instruction,  with  reflections  suggested  by  a  some- 
what close  observation  of  German  training  and  its  results  upon 
mind  and  character. 

1.  For  the  easy  acquisition  of  the  French  and  German  lan- 
guages by  their  children,  parents  who  can  arrange  to  live  in 
Europe  might  do  well  to  reside  for  a  term  of  years  in  France  or 
Germany,  with  children  between  five  and  twelve  years  of  age.  In 
such  cases  it  is  assumed  that  the  children,  while  mingling  in 
school  and  at  play  with  children  of  another  tongue,  will  be  kept 
under  the  social  and  moral  influences  of  an  American  home ;  will 
learn  lessons  of  patriotism  and  of  religion  with  the  English  speech  ; 
and  will  be  trained  in  the  table  manners,  the  j^ersonal  habits,  and 
the  social  courtesies,  in  which  the  well-bred  Englishman  or  Ameri- 
can is  so  superior  to  the  average  German,  and  even  to  the  French- 
man. If  you  do  not  wish  your  child  to  eat  with  his  knife,  to  suck 
down  his  soup  like  a  maelstroom,  to  help  himself  to  butter  or  salt 
with  his  own  knife — because  there  is  neither  butter-knife  nor  salt- 
spoon  upon  the  table — to  comb  his  hair  and  blow  his  nose  vocifer- 
ously where  others  are  eating,  to  talk  at  the  top  of  his  voice,  to 
mix  all  sorts  of  vegetables  in  greasy  gravies  steaming  with  onions, 
and  to  content  himself  with  a  teacupful  of  water  for  his  daily  ablu- 
tions, and  with  the  alternate  ends  of  the  same  towel  for  a  week,  and 
to  carry  huge  chunks  of  black  bread  and  raw  sausage  in  a  bit  of 
dirty  newspaper  to  school  for  his  lunch ;  if  you  do  not  wish  him 
to  puflT  cigars  with  his  infant  breath,  and  to  utter  a  "  Gott !"  a 
"  Bewahre  !"  or  a  "  Herr  Jesus  !"  at  every  incident  of  school  or 
play  ;  if  you  would  not  have  him  learn  to  sit  stolidly  staring  at  a 
lady  in  church  without  oflering  her  his  seat,  or  to  shove  her  off 
the  sidewalk  by  always  keeping  to  the  right ;  in  a  word,  if  you 
would  not  have  your  child  grow  up  in  all  things  the  reverse  of 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  ,  69 

the  quietness,  the  cleanliness,  the  decorum,  the  courtesy,  that 
mark  the  true  English  and  American  gentleman,  then  do  not 
place  him  in  his  growing  and  plastic  years  in  any  average  "  pen- 
sion" in  Germany.  If  circumstances  should  necessitate  his  enter- 
ing such  a  home,  wait  till  he  is  old  enough  to  stand  it  or  stomach 
it,  without  sacrificing  those  properties  of  life  which  are  inculcated 
in  good  American  families.  To  sum  up  all  on  this  head,  if  you 
can  arrange  to  live  abroad,  and  thus  to  surround  young  children 
in  their  earliest  years  with  the  healthy  influences  of  home  and  the 
invigorating  atmosphere  of  patriotism,  in  that  case  you  may  con- 
trive, without  detriment  to  other  interests,  to  give  them  the 
facility  of  acquiring  modern  languages,  and  also  the  taste  for 
nature  and  art,  which  may  be  cultivated  to  such  advantage  at 
any  well-selected  point  in  Europe.  But,  on  returning  to  America, 
you  will  need  to  take  special  pains  lest  the  knowledge  of  foreign 
tongues  should  be  lost  through  want  of  practice  in  speaking. 
Experience  shows  that  a  language  picked  up  so  easily  in  child- 
hood may  be  dropped  almost  as  easily  through  disuse  in  riper 
years. 

2.  Young  men  and  young  women,  between  twenty  and  twenty- 
five,  who  have  passed  through  the  customary  training  of  American 
schools  and  colleges,  and  who  have  sufiicient  stability  of  mind  and 
character  to  be  entrusted  with  the  care  of  their  own  principles, 
habits  and  opinions,  may  be  sent  abroad  to  good  advantage  for 
the  pursuit  of  some  specialty  in  literature,  science  and  art,  under 
celebrated  teachers,  and  for  that  enlargement  of  mind,  that  gener- 
osity of  judgment,  that  amenity  of  feeling,  that  cosmopolitan 
appreciation  of  men,  peoples  and  institutions,  which  a  sagacious 
and  susceptible  spirit  will  gain  from  travel  and  residence  in  for- 
eign lands.  A  thorough  college  course  at  home,  supplemented  by 
an  eclectic  course  at  a  German  university,  and  this  again  capped 
with  the  professional  course  in  America — or  the  latter  two  inverted 
— would  give  a  young  man  the  best  possible  preparation  for  his 
calling  in  life.  The  sending  of  American  youth  abroad  with  such 
a  preparation,  and  for  such  accomplishments,  is  by  all  means  to 
be  encouraged ;  and  the  college  officers  at  home  will  be  found 
the  best  advisers  as  to  time,  place,  and  lines  of  study. 

3.  But  for  the  interval  between  twelve  and  twenty,  Germany 
can  offer  to  American  youth  no  better  means  of  training  than  they 
have  at  home,  nor  so  good  a  preparation  for  American  life  as 
American  schools  and  colleges  provide.  A  youth  at  this  period 
might,  indeed,  be  well-enough  educated  abroad,  so  far  as  mental 
culture  is  concerned,  though  this  is  questionable  ;  and  if  attended 
throughout  his  course  with  parental  guidance  and  control,  he 
might  be  kept  true  to  the  tone  of  American  manners,  ideas  and 
principles — yet  even  then  he  must  suffer  a  lack  of  discipline  in 
the  English  language,  in  American  history,  and  above  all,  in  the 
practical,  common-sense  American  logic,  and  a  loss  of  the  esprit  de 
corps  of  the  American  Fraternity  of  Letters,  and  of  the  inspirations 
of  American  patriotism  and  progress,  for  which  no  facility  in  for- 

5 


70  EDUCATION  ABEOAD. 

eign  tongues  could  ever  compensate.  There  will  be  exceptional 
cases,  hut  no  wise  American  parent  loho  can  avoid  it  will  subject 
a  child  to  the  risks  and  privations  of  a  European  education 
during  the  critical  period  from  twelve  to  twenty — certainly  not 
alone  !  The  private  schools  of  Germany  are  so  far  inferior  to  the 
best  private  schools  in  the  United  States  that  these  can  be  left  out 
of  the  estimate,  and  the  comparison  will  be  made  most  fairly  be- 
tween the  Gymnasium  of  Germany  and  the  Classical  Academy 
and  College  of  America,  which  cover  the  same  period  of  life,  and 
between  the  Polytechnic  Schools  or  the  Gewerbe-Akademie  and 
the  corresponding  Scientific  School — say,  for  instance,  the  "  Shef- 
field" department  at  Yale  University. 

The  course  of  study  in  the  Gymnasium  covers  a  period  of  nine 
years  ;  in  the  first  five  years  the  student  is  exercised  in  the  follow- 
ing studies ; 

1.  Beligion :  History  of  the  Old  Testament,  the  Gospels,  the 
Catechism,  and  the  Songs  of  the  Church. 

2.  The  German  Language:  Readings  and  declamations,  studies 
in  the  Sagas,  the  poets  and  the  historians,  with  lectures  and  gram- 
matical practice. 

3.  Latin:  Grammar,  with  oral  and  written  translation,  prosody, 
selections  from  Ovid,  Csesar  de  bello  Gallico. 

4.  Geography :  Physical  and  political. 

5.  Mathematics :  Arithmetic  to  decimals ;  Algebraic  signs  and 
formulas ;  Elements  of  Geometry. 

6.  Natural  Science :  Preliminary  lessons  in  the  Animal  King- 
dom, in  Botany,  Mineralogy,  and  Anthropology. 

7.  Greek:  Grammar,  translation  and  composition,  selections 
from  Xenophon's  Anabasis. 

8.  French :  Grammar,  Chrestomathy  and  composition. 

9.  History  :  Greek,  Roman,  and  German. 

To  these  are  to  be  added  lessons  in  drawing,  in  writing,  and  in 
singing. 

Compare  this  with  the  studies  at  Phillips  Academy  or  at  Willis- 
ton  Academy,  and  you  will  see  that  in  classical  and  mathematical 
studies  the  first  five  years  in  a  Berlin  Gymnasium  do  not  carry  a 
student  so  far  as  is  required  for  admission  to  the  Freshman  class  at 
Yale.  In  geography  and  history  no  greater  advance  is  made ; 
and  the  study  of  German  and  French  would  be  at  the  expense  of 
English  to  an  American  boy  at  a  time  when  he  most  needs  to  be 
exercised  in  his  native  tongue.  Is  it  wise,  then,  to  send  him 
abroad  for  no  greater  advantages  than  these  ? 

The  remaining  four  years  of  the  Gymnasium  run  nearly  parallel 
with  the  collegiate  course  in  America. 

Compared  with  the  course  at  Yale  College,  neither  in  extent 
nor  variety  of  instruction,  in  text-books  nor  in  topics,  is  there  a 
shadow  of  advantage  in  the  German  Gymnasium  over  the  Ameri- 
can College. 

Why  then  send  a  boy  of  sixteen  to  Germany  ? 


EDUCATION  ABROAD.  71 

The  comparison  given  above  of  the  course  of  study  in  a  Berlin 
gymnasium  with  that  pursued  in  the  parallel  years  at  Phillips' 
Academy  and  Yale  College  demonstrates  to  the  eye  that,  in 
respect  of  discipline  in  the  classics  and  the  mathematics,  and  of 
general  attainments  in  literature,  history,  and  science,  the  Ameri- 
can youth  from  12  to  20  would  gain  nothing  by  forsaking  his 
home-schools  for  the  schools  of  Germany.  The  Gymnasium  is 
the  gate-way  to  the  University ;  in  the  University,  Faculties  cor- 
responding to  the  schools  of  Law,  of  Medicine,  and  of  Theology 
in  the  United  States,  and  to  the  post-graduate  Faculty  of  Philos- 
ophy and  the  Arts  lately  established  at  Yale,  Harvard,  Princeton, 
and  other  colleges,  are  grouped  about  a  common  center ;  instruc- 
tion is  given  wholly  by  lectures,  and  the  student  selects  his  own 
course,  and  in  that  course  his  favorite  professors.  The  Gymnasium 
and  the  University  are  sought  by  the  sons  of  the  wealthy,  the 
titled,  and  the  cultivated  classes,  with  whom  education  is  a  pass- 
port to  good  society,  and  also  by  young  men  who  are  looking 
forward  to  one  of  the  liberal  professions,  to  the  civil  service,  to  a 
professorship,  or  to  the  pursuit  of  literature,  philosophy,  or  science, 
m  some  specialty  of  the  higher  learning.  This  course  is  denomin- 
ated "  the  spiritual  culture." 

But  Germany  has  been  awake  also  to  the  demands  of  recent 
limes  for  an  education  directed  to  more  practical  ends,  and  based 
more  largely  upon  the  physical  sciences  and  the  knowledge  of 
things  than  upon  letters  and  the  classics.  For  such  an  education 
provision  is  made  in  the  Gewerbe-schools,  crowned  with  the 
Gewerbe-Acsidemj  or  Polytechnic.  The  course  in  the  latter  as  to 
topics  and  aims  is  parallel  to  that  of  the  Scientific  schools  in  Amer- 
ica, and  since  the  German  Polytechnic  is  supposed  to  offer  special 
advantages  to  American  youth,  I  propose  to  test  this  claim  by  an 
analytical  comparison  of  the  best  specimens  of  each — say  the 
Polytechnic  at  Carlsruhe  or  Berlin  with  the  "Sheffield"  at  New 
Haven.  In  the  Gewerbe-^chool,  which  is  preparatory  to  the  Poly- 
technic, the  division  and  subdivision  of  classes  corresponds  with 
that  of  the  Gymnasium ;  but  the  four  upper  classes  will  answer 
for  a  comparison  with — say  the  "Hopkins  Grammar  School"  at 
New  Haven,  as  a  preparation  for  the  Sheffield.  These  classes 
study  as  follows. 

1.  Religion :  Biblical  History ;  Heathenism  and  Judaism ;  the 
first  century  of  the  Church ;  the  Reformation ;  the  Augsburg 
Confession,  and  the  Canon  of  the  Scriptures. 

2.  German:  the  poets,  lyric,  epic,  and  dramatic;  history  of 
German  literature  in  the  Middle  Ages  and  in  modern  times. 

3.  French :  Thierry,  Rollin,  Voltaire,  Souvestre,  Montesquieu, 
Barran,  Moli^re,  Guizot,  with  grammatical  exercises,  translations, 
and  criticisms. 

4.  English:  Survey  of  English  literature;  study  of  selected 
authors,  in  which  Dickens'  Child's  History  of  England,  and 
Irving's  Sketch  Book  are  combined  with  Bancroft,  Macaulay  and 
Shakespeare ! 


72  EDUCATION  ABROAD. 

5.  History  and  Geography:  Greece,  the  Orient,  Rome,  the 
Middle  Ages  and  Modern  Times. 

6.  Mathematics :  Algebra,  Logarithms,  Geometry  (both  analytic 
and  synthetic),  Trigonometry,  Stereometry,  elements  of  Differen- 
tial and  Integral  Computation,  with  special  reference  to  Analytical 
Mechanics. 

7.  Physics :  Heat,  Electricity,  Magnetism,  Motion,  Steam,  Elec- 
trodynamics, Cosmical  Physics,  Optics  and  Acoustics. 

8.  Chemistry  and  Natural  History :  Botany,  Zoology,  elements 
of  the  Anatomy  and  Physiology  of  plants  and  animals,  Crystal- 
lography, Inorganic  Chemistry,  Organic  Chemistry,  Geognosy, 
Chemical  Technology  with  laboratory  work,  elements  of  Compar- 
ative Anatomy.  Neither  Latin  nor  Greek  is  taught  at  all  in  this 
school. 

In  comparison  with  the  Academic  preparation  for  a  Scientific 
School  in  the  United  States,  the  Gewerhe-^o^dooX  shows  a  superior- 
ity in  the  study  of  French  (and  naturally  of  German),  and  in  the 
departments  of  Physics  and  Natural  History,  where  the  studies  of 
the  Freshman  year  in  the  Sheffield  are,  to  some  extent,  anticipated 
in  the  Prima  of  the  Gewerbe.  But  in  Mathematics,  Geography, 
History  and  English,  the  Academy  boy  in  America  is  carried 
quite  as  far  as  the  Gewerbe  boy  in  Germany  ;  and  besides,  the 
Academy  boy  has  a  training  in  Latin  and  Greek,  in  Caesar,  Cicero, 
Virgil  and  Xenophon,  of  which  the  Gewerbe  boy  has  nothing  at 
all,  though  one  would  think  that  a  scientific  education  should 
embrace  at  least  the  rudiments  of  the  languages  from  which  the 
whole  terminology  of  science  is  constructed !  Thus  far  then  the 
account  between  the  Academy  and  the  Gewerbe  is  fairly  balanced, 
and  the  apparent  superiority  of  the  Gewerbe  in  preliminary  scien- 
tific studies  disappears  when  we  pursue  the  comparison  between 
the  "  Scientific"  and  the  "  Polytechnic" ;  for  it  is  then  seen  to  be 
not  at  all  a  difference  of  quantity  or  degree  in  the  matter  of  a 
scientific  course,  but  simply  of  the  distribution  or  classification  of 
studies  through  a  given  term  of  years. 

Commonly  the  boys  in  the  Gewerbe-school  are  of  a  lower  grade 
socially  than  the  boys  in  the  Gymnasium,  especially  in  large 
cities ; — as  a  friend  expressed  it,  "  Gentlemen  send  their  sons  to  the 
Gymnasium  and  the  University^  only  the  common  people  send  to 
the  Gewerbe-schools."  From  ocular  and  nasal  inspection  of  some 
of  these  schools,  I  must  say  that  an  American  boy  of  nice  family 
ought  not  to  be  subjected  to  such  companionship,  for  if  "  cleanli- 
ness is  akin  to  godliness,"  the  average  Germans  have  sadly  fallen 
from  grace !  And  for  that  matter,  even  in  the  Berlin  University, 
an  American  student  informs  me  that  his  German  seatmates  dis- 
gust him  daily,  in  the  brief  intervals  of  the  lectures,  by  taking 
from  their  pockets  bread,  cheese  and  sausage,  done  up  in  a  smutty 
newspaper,  eating  with  a  jack-knife,  and  then  combing  their  hair 
with  unwashed  hands.  Such  habits  are  largely  national,  but  one 
sees  less  of  them  in  the  Gymnasium  and  the  University  than  in 
the  Gewerbe-school     Many  boys  use  the  latter  as  boys  once  used 


EDUCATION   ABROAD.  73 

the  Free  Academy  in  New  York,  as  a  recommendation  for  busi- 
ness. The  catalogue  of  one  of  the  best  of  these  schools  in  Berlin 
shows  that  the  lower  classes  average  about  100,  the  middle  classes 
only  from  40  to  50,  and  the  upper  classes  dwindle  to  10  or  12  ! 

Coming  now  to  the  Polytechnic,  to  which  the  Gewerbe-school 
is  preparatory,  how  does  this  compare  with  the  corresponding 
Scientific  School  in  America — say  the  "Sheffield  "  at  New  Haven  ? 
[I  beg  to  be  understood  that  I  take  Yale  University  as  a  standard 
with  no  invidious  reference  to  other  American  colleges,  but  be- 
cause I  am  familiar  with  Yale,  and  have  its  latest  catalogue  at 
hand.]  To  draw  out  in  detail  the  comparison  of  studies,  text- 
books, exercises,  etc.,  between  Sheffield  and  a  German  Polytechnic, 
would  require  too  much  space  ;  so  the  reader  will  be  so  good  as  to 
accept  the  writer's  testimony,  from  a  minute  analysis,  that  each 
and  every  study,  in  each  and  every  subdivision,  is  as  specifically 
and  as  thoroughly  provided  for  at  the  Sheffield  Scientific  as  at  the 
Carlsruhe  Polytechnic,  not  excepting  the  German  and  French 
languages,  with  only  this  proper  diflerence,  that  the  prominence 
given  in  the  Polytechnic  to  German  history  and  literature,  in  the 
Sheffield  is  assigned  to  English  literature,  history  and  composition. 
If  a  boy  does  not  master  his  own  language,  as  to  style  and  expres- 
sion, between  12  and  20,  he  never  will;  and  no  matter  how  many 
foreign  languages  he  may  know,  his  knowledge  will  be  of  no  avail, 
unless  he  can  use  it  readily,  clearly  and  effectively  in  his  own 
tongue. 

The  superiority  of  European  education  is  pretty  much  a  tradi- 
tion^ which  many  cling  to  through  ignorance  of  what  has  been 
gained  in  America  in  the  past  generation.  What  would  I  not 
give  to-day  to  have  had  in  my  yoath  the  classical  and  literary 
training  of  a  German  Gymnasium  and  University  as  compared 
with  what  Yale  College  could  offer  forty  years  ago!  But  for 
the  youth  of  to-day  the  difference  is  not  worth  the  voyage  across 
the  sea.  Unless  private  reasons  should  otherwise  direct,  the  un- 
dergraduate  period,  whether  in  the  College  or  in  the  Scientific 
School,  can  be  spent  to  better  advantage  at  home  than  abroad, 
even  for  the  general  object  of  intellectual  training,  apart  from  the 
specific  adaptation  of  that  training  to  American  life. 

After  graduation,  the  well-balanced  student  should  come  to 
Germany,  if  possible,  for  a  year  or  two  of  eclectic  study  at  a 
University.  For  the  same  reason  the  young  German  who  is  look- 
ing forward  to  public  life,  and  who  would  fit  himself  for  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  these  times,  should  go  to  Yale  or  Harvard  for  a 
year  or  two  of  study  in  political  philosophy,  and  in  the  Constitu- 
tional history  and  law  of  the  United  States.  And  what  a  world 
of  good  it  would  do  these  young  German  licentiat*?s  to  spend  a 
year  or  two  at  New  Haven,  Andover  or  Union  in  learning  to  put 
thought  into  their  sermons.  The  immense  superiority  of  the 
American  pulpit  over  every  other  excepting  that  of  Scotland  lies 
in  its  thinking  power;  and  it  will  be  a  sorry  day  for  the  American 
churches  if,  in  a  blind  quest  of  popular  effect  or  of  the  baser  ele- 


74  EDUCATION   ABROAD. 

ment  of  commercial  success,  they  shall  part  with  one  iota  of  what 
has  made  their  strength,  their  glory,  and  their  increase.  Said  a 
leading  English  minister  to  me,  "  Your  American  preachers  thinh 
where  we  Englishmen  talk!''''  Said  the  greatest  Professor  of 
Theology  in  Germany,  "  We  have  no  such  preaching  as  the  Ameri- 
can in  Germany.  Ah !  if  we  could  only  have  your  union  of 
thought  with  heart,  of  strength  with  feeling,  of  science  with  scrip- 
ture, we  might  get  hold  upon  the  mind  of  Germany  with  the 
Gospel."  ^ 

Tliis  thing  lies  partly  in  the  mental  habit  of  the  American,  but 
much  also  in  the  method  of  training — the  breadth,  the  comprehen- 
siveness and  the  logical  vigor  of  the  American  education,  compared 
with  the  minuteness,  the  particularity,  the  exhaustive  tradition- 
alism, and  the  speculative  fantasy  of  the  German. 


Beloit  College,  ) 

Beloit,  Wis.,  July  10th,  1873.     ] 

Bear  Sir, — For  the  prosecution  of  study  in  particular  lines  of 
research,  no  doubt  one  can  find  superior  advantages  in  some  of 
the  European  schools.  But  it  seems  to  me  evident  that  so  far  as 
the  beginning  of  mental  culture  and  the  broad  basis  of  general 
intelligence  and  manly  development .  are  concerned,  an  educa- 
tion in  America  is  quite  essential  for  American  citizens. 
While  the  leading  parts  of  science,  and  the  principles  of  phil- 
osophy and  the  substance  of  learning  are  the  same  for  all  the 
world,  the  national  life  of  any  people  is  sustained  mainly  by 
those  ideas  which  are  peculiar  to  its  social  organization  and 
history;  and  those  ideas  are  best  imbibed  by  young  minds 
through  the  unconscious  tuition  incidental  to  courses  of  train- 
ing and  culture,  presented  for  years  in  the  atmosphere  which  is 
charged  with  them.  The  rapid  inflow  upon  us  of  foreigners 
whose  ideas  can  be  but  slowly  assimilated  to  their  new  rela- 
tions, makes  it  all  the  more  important  that  those  who  are  to  be 
leaders  of  thought  and  influence  among  us  be  thoroughly 
imbued  with  the  national  spirit  and  prepared  to  guide  the 
swift  movement  of  our  nation's  progress. 

Then  we  are  steadily  developing  a  distinctively  American 
system  of  education  best  adapted  to  the  circumstances  and 
needs  of  our  own  country.  Our  youth  need  to  hold  themselves 
perseveringly  to  the  course  of  training  thus  provided.  The 
dissipating  effect  of  frequent  changes  of  school  regimen  so  com- 
mon with  our  people  works  mischievously.     More  than  any- 


EDUCATION    ABROAD.  75 

thing  else,  it  hinders  thorough  scholarship  and  high  attain- 
ment. 

These  considerations  produce  in  mj  mind  the  strong  convic- 
tion that  for  the  training  period  of  education,  that  is,  from  the 
beginning  in  the  primary  school  to  the  graduation  from  col- 
lege, our  home  institutions  furnish  the  best  facilities  for  edu- 
cating our  youth  for  the  privileges,  the  duties,  the  honors  and 
responsibilities  of  American  citizens.  After  the  foundation 
has  thus  been  well  laid,  every  one  who  has  the  opportunity 
will  gain  much  in  general  intelligence  and  breadth  of  views 
and  in  whatever  specific  research  may  be  desired,  by  contact 
with  the  institutions  of  the  old  world. 

Very  truly  yours,  A.  L.  CHAPIN, 

President  of  Beloit  College, 


Dartmouth  College,  ) 

Hanover,  N.  IL,  July  14,  18V3.  j 

My  Dear  Sir. — I  approve  fully  and  heartily  the  view  you 
take,  and  that  on  intellectual,  moral  and  patriotic  grounds.  I 
have  been  amazed  at  the  disposition  on  the  part  of  those  who 
ought  to  know  and  do  better,  to  send  mere  children  abroad  for 
education.  It  is  un-American.  It  is  contrary  to  the  funda- 
mental laws  of  culture.  To  reverse  a  Scripture  figure,  it  is 
sewing  old  cloth  into  a  new  garment.  It  is  like  transferring  a 
young  and  tender  American  plant  to  a  European  soil,  only  to 
grow  there  a  little  while,  and  then  be  transplanted  again.  It 
interrupts  and  confuses  the  process  of  development.  It  lays 
foreign  foundations  for  what  should  be  an  American  edifice. 
It  forms,  or  is  apt  to  form,  a  mongrel  character,  with  an  infe- 
licitous mixture  of  old-world  and  new-world  associations  and 
habitudes.  And  there  are  moral  dangers  connected  with  it 
still  more  momentous. 

That  there  is  a  period  in  the  process  of  education  when  for- 
eign study  may  be  useful,  either  in  certain  academic  special- 
ties or  in  professional  directions,  I  have  no  doubt.  I  would 
not  underrate  the  advantages  offered  by  some  of  the  great 
European  universities.  Yet  I  have  as  little  doubt  that  we  are 
by-and-by  to  have  like  advantages  in  our  own  land.  My 
advice  to  those  who  think  of  study  abroad  is,  to  make  it  not 


76  EDUCATION    ABROAD. 

fundamental  or  constituent,  so  to  speak,  but  rather  supplement 
ary.  I  have  known  students  to  transfer  themselves  from  a  col- 
lege class  to  a  German  university,  even  as  early  as  Sophomore 
year,  but  always  with  a  loss — not  to  say,  in  some  cases,  with  an 
utter  failure.  Let  the  college  curriculum  be  finished  in  some 
good  American  institution,  and  then,  perhaps,  it  may  be  well 
to  go  abroad.  Yet  it  would  ordinarily  be  better,  in  my  judg 
ment,  to  take  first  the  professional  course,  and  then  supple- 
ment and  enrich  it  at  some  foreign  institution.  He  who  does 
this  is  better  prepared  to  profit  by  whatever  teaching  he  avails 
himself  of  He  knows  what  he  wants.  His  outline  of  acquisi- 
tion is  marked  out.  The  principles  are  mastered  around  which 
all  new  informations  will  easily  crystallize.  He  has,  every  way, 
a  better  receptivity,  and  will  make  a  broader,  more  complete, 
more  symmetrical  tiling  of  his  whole  education.  He  will  be  a 
truer  and  better  American  scholar. 

Yours  very  truly,  ASA  D.  SMITH, 

President  Dartmouth  College. 


Paris,  Prance,  July  3,  1873. 
Bear  Sir^ — I  fully  sympathize  with  you  in  the  sentiments 
expressed  in  your  excellent  article  on  "  tlie  Education  of 
American  youth  in  Europe,"  and  it  seems  to  me  tbat  your 
warning  has  come  not  a  moment  too  soon.  The  paragraph 
beginning  with  "  In  philological  studies  and  researches,"  etc., 
and  ending  with  "  The  American  boy  needs  about  two  years 
of  preparation,"  etc.,  is  strongly  and  tersely  put,  and  contains 
truths  which  should  be  gravely  pondered  by  all  American 
parents  who  think  of  giving  their  children  a  European  educa- 
tion, yet  would  shrink  from  seeing  them  intellectually  or 
morally  Germanized  or  Gallicized.  After  my  return  to  the 
United  States,  when  in  a  fitter  condition  to  do  it,  I  will  try  to 
give  you  my  impressions  on  the  subject  more  in  full.  Thank- 
ing you  for  your  kind  invitation  to  write,  I  remain,  with  many 
pleasant  recollections  of  my  compagnon  de  voyage  in  the  Algeria, 
Yours  with  esteem,  WILLIAM  MATHEWS, 

Professor  in  the  University  of  Chicago. 

(The  above  letters  were  received  too  late  for  insertion  in  their  proper  place.) 


LEGAL  PKEYENTION  OF  ILLITERACY. 

My  former  objections  to  compulsory  education  were  fully 
removed  by  observations  recently  made  in  Europe.  Mingling 
much  with  plain  people  in  Germany  and  other  countries  where 
attendance  at  school  is  compulsory,  I  sought  in  every  way  to 
learn  their  sentiments  on  this  question.  After  the  fullest 
inquiry  in  Prussia,  especially  among  laborers  of  all  sorts,  I  no- 
where heard  a  lisp  of  objection  to  this  law.  The  masses  every- 
where favor  it.  They  say  education  is  a  necessity  for  all. 
They  realize  that  the  school  is  their  privilege.  They  prize  it 
and  are  proud  of  it.  Attendance  is  voluntary,  in  fact.  No- 
body seems  to  think  of  coercion.  The  law  is  operative,  but  it 
executes  itself,  because  it  is  right  and  beneficent  and  commands 
universal  approval.  It  is  only  the  legal  expression  of  the  pub- 
lic will. 

Education,  more  than  anything  else,  has  fraternized  the  great 
German  nation.  "Whatever  you  would  have  appear  in  a 
nation's  life,  that  you  must  put  into  its  schools,"  was  long  since 
a  Prussian  motto.  The  school  has  there  been  the  prime  agent 
of  loyalty.  Love  of  country  is  the  germ  it  long  ago  planted  in 
the  heart  of  every  child.  The  fruit  now  matured  gladdens  and 
enriches  the  whole  land.  Wherever  that  lesson  is  heeded  it 
will  enrich  the  world.  Devotion  to  fatherland  is  a  characteris- 
tic sentiment  of  the  German  people.  Shall  such  a  people  with 
such  a  history  complain  of  compulsory  attendance  ?  This  law 
itself  has  been  a  teacher  of  the  nation.  It  has  everywhere  pro- 
claimed the  necessity  and  dignity  of  the  public  school.  Kings 
and  nobles  and  ministers  of  State  have  combined  to  confirm 
and  diffuse  this  sentiment  till  now  it  pervades  and  assimilates 
all  classes. 

The  absence  of  complaint  about  coercive  attendance  is  not 
due,  as  some  have  supposed,  to  an  enforced  reticence  or  re- 
straint. Proofs  of  the  utmost  freedon  of  speech  abound.  The 
Prussian  military  system  is  a  grievous  burden  to  the  people. 
They  dread  it  and  bitterly  denounce  it.     The  law  which  takes 


78  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF  ILLITERACY. 

away  every  young  man  from  "his  friends,  his  business  and  his 
home  for  three  weary  years  of  military  service,  is  hard,  and  is 
freely  condemned.  Many  young  families  have  left  their  father- 
land for  America,  and  many  more  are  now  planning  to  emigrate 
in  order  to  escape  this  arbitrary  conscription.  But  even  the 
father  who  is  most  aggrieved  by  the  army  draft,  lauds  the 
school  draft. 

In  various  parts  of  Saxony  I  inquired  of  school -directors 
and  others,  "  Do  you  have  any  difficulty  in  executing  the  coer- 
cive law  ?  The  answers  were  all  substantially  the  same.  "  Many 
years  ago,"  replied  one,  "  there  was  some  opposition.  But  the 
results  of  the  law  have  commended  it  to  all,  and  they  obey  it 
without  complaint  and  almost  without  exception."  The  pres- 
ent generation  of  parents  having  themselves  experienced  its 
advantages,  are  its  advocates.  Said  a  resident  oi  Dresden,  "A 
healthy  child  of  school  age  can  hardly  be  found  in  this  city 
who  has  not  attended  school.  Were  the  question  of  compul- 
sory attendance  to  be  decided  to-morrow  in  Saxony  by  a  ple- 
biscite, it  would  be  sustained  by  an  almost  unanimous  verdict. 
Public  opinion  is  now  stronger  even  than  the  law.  The  people 
would  sooner  increase  laan  relax  its  rigor."  I  nowhere  learned 
of  any  recent  cases  of  punishment  for  its  infractions.  In  many 
places  I  was  assured  that  the  penalty  is  practically  unknown. 

The  principle  of  obligatory  instruction  was  advocated  by  the 
people  before  it  was  enacted  by  the  government.  The  address 
of  Luther  to  the  municipal  corporations  in  1554  contains  the 
earliest  defence  of  it  within  my  knowledge,  in  which  he  says, 
"  Ah,  if  a  State  in  the  time  of  war  can  oblige  its  citizens  to  take 
up  the  ^word  and  the  musket,  has  it  not  still  more  the  power, 
and  is  it  not  its  duty  to  compel  them  to  instruct  their  children, 
since  we  are  all  engaged  in  a  most  serious  warfiire  waged  with 
the  spirit  of  evil  which  rages  in  our  midst,  seeking  to  depopu- 
late the  State  of  its  virtuous  men?  It  is  my  desire,  above  all 
things  else,  that  every  child  should  go  to  school,  or  be  sent 
there  by  a  magistrate." 

The  germ  of  this  system  in  Prussia  is  found  in  a  decree  of 
Frederic  II,  in  1763  :  "  We  will  that  all  our  subjects,  parents, 
guardians,  and  masters  send  to  school  those  children  for  whom 
they  are  responsible,  boys  and  girls,  from  their  fifth  year  to  the 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  79 

age  of  fourteen."  This  royal  order  was  revised  in  1794,  and 
in  the  code  of  1819  made  more  stringent,  with  severe  penalties ; 
first  warnings,  then  small  fines,  doubling  the  fines  for  repeated 
offences ;  and  finally  imprisonment  of  parents,  guardians  and 
masters. 

The  penalties  now  are : 

1.  Admonition,  in  the  form  of  a  note  of  warning  from  the 
president  of  the  local  school  commission. 

2.  Summons  to  appear  before  the  school  commission,  with  a 
reprimand  from  the  presiding  ofl&cer. 

8.  Complaint  to  the  magistrate  by  the  commission,  who 
usually  exacts  a  fine  of  twenty  cents,  and  for  a  second  offiense 
forty  cents,  for  a  third  eighty  cents,  doubling  the  last  fine  for 
each  repetition  of  the  offense. 

The  registers  of  attendance  and  absence  are  kept  with  scrupu- 
lous exactness  by  the  teacher,  and  delivered  to  the  president  of 
the  school  commission.  Excuses  are  accepted  for  illness, 
exceedingly  severe  weather,  great  distance  from  school,  and 
sometimes  on  account  of  the  pressure  of  work  in  harvest  time. 

What  may  America  learn  on  this  subject  from  the  long  and 
successful  experience  of  Germany  and  Switzerland?  The  con- 
trast between  those  countries  and  England,  or  even  New  York 
city,  in  regard  to  the  number  of  ignorant  "  street  Arabs."  is 
too  conspicuous  to  be  questioned.  For  the  patriot  and  the  phi- 
lanthropist there  is  no  more  important  question  than  :  "  How 
shall  we  reclaim  our  neglected  children  ?"  With  growing- 
faith  in  moral  suasion  as  our  main  reliance  in  preventing  ab- 
senteeism, I  now  contend  for  the  authority  of  the  law  with  its 
sterner  sanctions  to  fall  back  upon  in  extreme  cases.  When 
paternal  pride,  interest,  or  authority  fails,  and  juvenile  perverse- 
ness  is  otherwise  incorrigible,  legal  coercion  should  be  em- 
ployed. 

When  our  population  was  homogeneous,  as  was  the  case  in 
the  early  history  of  New  England,  there  was  little  absenteeism 
from  school.  All  valued  education,  and  with  rare  exceptions, 
all  native-born  citizens  could  read  and  write.  "  Where  were 
you  born?"  was  the  inquiry  of  Judge  Daggett,  long  the  Kent 
Professor  of  Law  in  Yale  College,  on  finding  any  witness  on 
the  stand,  or  criminal  in  the  dock,  who  could  not  read  and  write  ; 


80  LEGAL   PKEVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

and  with  only  three  exceptions,  during  his  long  time  of  judicial 
service,  he  never  received  the  answer,  "  In  Connecticut."  But 
recently,  immigration  has  caused  startling  figures  of  illiteracy, 
especially  in  our  large  cities.  With  this  ignorance  comes  in- 
difference to  education,  for  illiteracy  involves  insensibility  to 
the  evils  it  engenders. 

To  remedy  truancy,  we  should  inquire  first  for  its  causes. 
These  are  various.  So  should  be  the  remedies  in  order  to  meet 
each  exigency.  We  should  not  despair  of  reclaiming  the  most 
desperate.  They  may  be  desponding,  with  no  hope  of  bettering 
their  condition,  no  pride  of  character,  respect  for  truth,  or  even 
sense  of  shame, — yes,  false  and  profane,  and  yet  we  must  not 
give  them  up  as  hopeless  cases,  but  with  faith  in  Christian  incen- 
tives, strive  to  stir  the  conscience  and  win  the  heart.  Though 
unaccustomed  to  kindness,  such  boys  are  not  of  course  insensi- 
ble to  its  influence.  The  tones  of  sympathy  may  touch  a  chord 
which  will  vibrate  more  sweetly  because  of  its  very  strangeness. 
If  we  will  put  ourselves  in  the  place  of  wayward  children,  so  as 
to  appreciate  their  wants,  weakness,  and  wickedness  even,  we 
may  tell  them  not  in  vain  both  of  the  perils  they  incur  and  the 
privileges  they  neglect.  The  most  forlorn  child  I  have  met, 
when  properly  approached,  has  kindly  received  friendly  counsel 
and  even  warnings  as  to  his  offenses.  I  can  recall  many  in- 
stances of  youth  thus  rescued  from  the  street  school  who  are 
now  virtuous  citizens.  How  amply  have  such  services  been 
compensated  by  grateful  acknowledgments,  or  tears  of  joy, 
more  eloquently  showing  a  cherished  remembrance  of  timely 
aid  and  counsel ! 

Neglect  of  school  may  usually  be  traced  to  parental  indiffer- 
ence, intemperance,  or  other  evil  home  influence.  How  many 
youth  receive  no  right  parental  training  and  have  no  home 
worthy  of  the  name.  The  house  where  they  only  eat  and 
sleep  is  the  scene  of  contention  and  profanity,  fitted  to  drive 
away  its  inmates  to  the  street  school.  Dissolute  habits  of 
parents  bringing  rags  and  wretchedness  into  the  home  turn  the 
children  as  truants  or  beggars  into  the  streets.  These  vagrants, 
accustomed  to  "  bunk  out "  where  night  overtakes  them,  soon 
lose  pride  of  character,  self-respect,  and  even  all  sense  of  their 
degradation.     To  them  the  prospect  of  self-improvement  brings 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  81 

no  bright  visions  of  better  days.  Forlorn  and  without  hope 
and  ambition,  they  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  content  with  the 
supply  of  their  animal  wants. 

Sometimes  poverty,  loss  of  parental  control,  orphanage, 
hard  experience  of  neglect  and  conscious  degradation,  are  the 
sources  of  this  mischief.  The  "street  Arabs,"  the  juvenile 
vagrants  and  beggars  who  abound  in  certain  European  coun- 
tries, are  the  hardest  to  get  to  school,  or  to  teach  when  there. 
They  live  in  the  street,  without  guardianship  and  without 
employment,  except  such  as  chance  throws  in  their  way. 
Many  imported  specimens  of  the  same  sort  are  now  thronging 
our  large  cities.  A  due  consideration  of  their  early  exposures, 
hardships  and  temptations  would  awaken  sympathy  for  these 
unfortunate  waifs  in  place  of  the  coldness  and  disdain  with 
which  they  are  too  often  treated. 

When  poverty  detains  from  school,  public  or  private  charity 
should  meet  the  exigency,  supplying  the  lack  of  decent  cloth- 
ing, and  inviting  the  attendance  of  the  most  destitute  absentees. 
In  Sweden  and  other  European  countries,  those  children  whose 
parents  are  unable  to  clothe  them  are  relieved  by  the  parish. 
Among  us,  the  parents  of  neglected  children,  if  not  vicious,  are 
mostly  immigrants.  Of  the  advantages  of  education  they  yet 
know  little.  A  dormant  parental  pride,  if  not  a  sense  of  their 
duty  as  the  divinely -appointed  guardians  of  their  offspring, 
may  be  awakened.  They  may  be  led  to  see  that  education  will 
promote  their  interest  and  increase  their  children's  happiness, 
thrift,  and  prosperity  through  life.  Personal  kindness,  tact,  and 
persuasion  may  thus  win  those  who  seem  perverse. 

Public  sentiment  is  moving  rapidly  in  the  direction  of  com- 
pulsory education.  During  the  last  year  this  question  has  been 
discussed  in  the  legislatures  of  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Connecticut, 
New  Hampshire,  Michigan,  and  other  States.  It  is  the  most 
important  school  question  of  modern  times.  It  is  the  leading 
question  which  divides  the  friends  of  education  in  France  and 
England.  In  this  great  conflict,  the  older  American  States 
should  take  the  lead.  In  each  State  our  plans  should  embrace 
more  than  our  boundaries.  The  interests  of  all  the  American 
States  are  virtually  one.  Like  that  of  Switzerland,  our  motto 
should  be,  "  One  for  all,  all  for  one."     The  unification  of  Ger- 


82  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

many  and  of  Italy — the  most  important  of  the  recent  political 
events  in  Europe — are  largely  the  results  of  public  instruction. 
Our  people  also,  diverse  in  race  and  character,  need  now  to  be 
fused  into  one.  More  than  anything  else  universal  education 
will  thus  fraternize  all.  The  extension  of  the  franchise  in  our 
country  demands  a  corresponding  expansion  of  the  school.  To 
give  the  ballot  to  the  ignorant  would  be  suicidal  to  the  nation. 
In  the  interest  of  public  morality  and  order,  the  security  of  life 
and  property,  as  well  as  for  the  safety  and  perpetuity  of  our 
free  institutions,  every  agency  should  be  employed  to  secure 
universal  education. 

Obligatory  attendance  is  a  corollary  from  the  compulsory 
school  tax.  The  power  that  claims  public  money  for  the  pur- 
pose of  educating  and  elevating  all  classes  may  justly  provide 
that  such  public  expenditure  shall  not  fail  of  its  appropriate  end 
through  the  vice,  intemperance,  or  perverseness  of  parents. 
The  State  has  the  same  right  to  compel  the  ignorant  to  learn 
that  it  has  to  compel  the  penurious  to  pay  for  that  learning. 
If  education  is  of  universal  interest,  it  must  be  universal  in  its 
diffusion.  Many  taxpayers  have  said  to  me,  "  If  you  compel 
us,  who  have  no  children,  to  support  schools  for  the  good  of  the 
State,  you  must  effectively  provide  that  the  children  of  the 
State  fail  not  to  share  the  advantages  thus  furnished.  While 
we,  willing  or  unwilling,  must  support  the  schools,  the  children, 
by  constraint  if  not  from  choice,  should  attend  school." 

And  why  not  ?  The  following  are  all  the  objections  I  have 
heard : 

"  Such  a  law  would  create  a  new  crime."  I  reply,  it  ought 
to.  To  bring  up  children  in  ignorance  is  a  crime,  and  should 
be  treated  as  such.  As 'the  most  prolific  source  of  criminality, 
it  should  be  under  the  ban  of  legal  condemnation,  and  the  re- 
straint of  legal  punishments.  All  modern  civilization  and  legis- 
lation have  made  new  crimes.  Barbarism  recognizes  but  few. 
To  employ  children  in  factories  who  are  under  ten  years  of  age, 
or  who  have  not  attended  school,  or  to  employ  minors  under 
eighteen  years  of  age  more  than  twelve  hours  a  day,  is  each  a 
"  new  crime"  in  the  New  England  and  several  other  States.  If 
the  law  may  justly  protect  children  from  being  overworked, 
surely  it  may  prevent  their  continuing  uneducated,  for  "  un- 
educated mind  is  educated  vice." 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  83 

'*  Such  a  law  is  a  substitution  of  force  for  reason."  So  are  all 
laws.  They  must  be  compulsory.  At  least  force  must  always 
be  in  reserve.  To  the  good  citizen  "  the  statutes  "  bring  no 
terror.  They  formulate  his  choice  and  are  the  pledge  of  his 
safety,  or  the  monitor  of  his  duty.  Force  should  always  stand 
in  the  background,  unless  lawlessness  challenges  it  to  the  front. 
But  criminal  provisions  without  penalties  are  only  a  burlesque 
of  legislation. 

"We  should  draw  and  jiot  drivel  I  reply  "draw"  to  the 
utmost.  Try  all  the  measures  and  motives  which  kindness  and 
argument  can  suggest.  I  have  already  urged  the  importance 
of  making  moral  suasion  our  main  reliance,  and  of  seeking  to 
the  utmost  by  sympathy,  encouragement  and  material  aid  where 
needed,  to  gain  the  confidence  and  cooperation  of  parents  and 
children.  Admitting  that  it  is  better  for  children  to  attend 
school  of  their  own  accord,  I  would  use  every  reasonable  device 
to  make  the  school  attractive  as  well  as  profitable. 

"  It  interferes  with  the  liberty  of  parents."  I  reply  again,  it 
ought  to,  when  they  are  incapacitated  by  vice  or  other  causes 
for  the  performance  of  essential  duties  as  parents.  Many  other 
laws  limit  personal  liberty.  The  requisition  to  serve  on  juries, 
or  to  aid  the  Sheriff  in  arresting  criminals,  or  the  exactions  of 
military  service  in  the  hour  of  the  country's  need, — these  and 
many  other  laws  do  this.  If  the  law  may  prohibit  the  owner 
from  practicing  cruelty  upon  his  horse  or  ox,  it  may  restrain  the 
parent  from  dwarfing  the  mind  and  debasing  the  character  of 
his  child.  If  the  State  may  imprison  and  punish  juvenile 
criminals,  it  may  remove  the  causes  of  their  crime  and  its  con- 
sequences of  loss,  injury  and  shame.  To  protect  the  rights 
of  the  child  and  enforce  the  duties  of  parents  is  not  an  invasion 
of  rights  nor  any  usurpation  of  parental  authority.  The  child 
has  rights  which  not  even  a  parent  may  violate.  He  may  not 
rob  his  child  of  the  sacred  right  of  a  good  education.  The  law 
would  justly  punish  a  parent  for  starving  his  child,  and  more 
mischief  is  done  by  starving  the  mind  than  by  famishing  the 
body.  The  right  of  a  parent  to  his  children  is  founded  6n  his 
ability  and  disposition  to  supply  their  wants  of  body  and  mind. 
When  a  parent  is  disqualified  by  intemperance,  cruelty,  or 
insanity,  society  justly  assumes  the  control  of  his  children.    In 


84  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

ancient  Greece,  the  law  gave  almost  "anlimited  authority  to  the 
father  over  his  offspring.  The  same  is  true  in  some  semi-bar- 
barous nations  now.  In  all  Christian  lands,  the  rights  of  the 
parent  are  held  to  imply  certain  correlative  duties,  and  the  duty 
to  educate  is  as  positive  as  to  feed  and  clothe.  Neglected  chil- 
dren, when  not  orphans  in  fact,  are  virtually  such,  their  parents 
ignoring  their  duties,  and  thus  forfeiting  their  rights  as  parents. 
The  State  should  protect  helpless  children,  whose  rights  are 
sacred,  and  especially  these,  its  defenceless  wards,  who  other- 
wise will  be  vicious  as  well  as  weak.  We  should  recognize 
the  claim  of  the  humblest  child  to  an  education  as  that  which 
it  cannot  neglect  without  detriment  to  itself  and  harm  to  a 
human  soul.  The  State  may  not  by  act  or  omission  doom 
a  single  child  to  ignorance  and  its  consequent  evils.  The 
temporary  hardships  incident  to  the  observance  of  such  a 
law  will  be  counterbalanced  a  thousandfold  by  the  perma- 
nent advantage  of  both  parents  and  children,  but  its  neglect 
will  inflict  lasting  evil  upon  them  and  the  whole  community. 
The  poor  cannot  afford  to  transmit  their  poverty  by  depriving 
their  children  of  education — the  surest  source  of  thrift.  The 
old  proverb,  "  penny  wise  and  pound  foolish,"  fitly  characterizes 
the  short-sighted  policy  of  permitting  indigence  to  perpetuate 
ignorance,  and  in  turn  ignorance  to  perpetuate  indigence. 

"  It  arrogates  new  power  for  the  government."  So  do  all 
quarantine  and  hygienic  regulations  and  laws  for  the  abatement 
of  nuisances.  Now  ignorance  is  as  noxious  as  the  most  offen- 
sive nuisance,  and  more  destructive  than  bodily  contagions. 
Self-protection  is  a  fundamental  law  of  society.  Education  is 
the  universal  right,  duty  and  interest  of  man.  If  the  State  has 
a  right  to  hang  a  criminal,  it  has  a  better  right  to  prevent  his 
crime  by  proper  culture.  The  right  to  imprison  and  to  execute 
implies  the  right  to  use  the  best  means  to  prevent  the  need  of 
either.  The  State  has  an  interest  in  all  its  children,  for  its 
thrift  and  virtue  and  its  very  life  depend  upon  their  training. 

"It  is  un-American  and  ill  adapted  to  our  free  institutions." 
Such  a  law  in  our  country  should  command  popular  sympa- 
thy more  than  in  any  monarchy,  for  here  the  law  is  made  by 
the  people  and  for  the  people.  It  is  not  pressed  upon  them  by 
some  outside  agency  or  higher  power.     It  is  their  own  work, 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  85 

embodying  their  judgment  and  preference,  and  expressing  their 
own  view  of  the  necessity  of  universal  education.  The  form  of 
compulsory  education  which  existed  in  Connecticut  for  over  a 
century  was  not  forced  upon  the  people  as  "  subjects."  It  was 
rather  a  living  organism,  of  which  they  as  "sovereigns," 
proudly  claimed  the  paternity,  growing  up  with  their  growth, 
and  recognized  as  the  source  of  their  strength  and  prosperity. 
But  to  put  the  question  in  the  most  offensive  form,  it  may 
be  asked,  "  Would  you  have  a  policeman  drag  your  children 
to  school  ?"  I  answer,  "  Yes,  if  it  will  prevent  his  dragging 
them  to  jail  a  few  years  hence."  But  this  law  in  our  land 
would  involve  no  "  dragging"  and  no  police  espionage  or  inquis- 
itorial searches.  With  the  annual  enumeration  and  the  school 
registers  in  hand,  and  the  aid  of  teachers  and  others  most 
conversant  with  each  district,  school  officers  could  easily  leaFn 
who  are  the  absentees. 

There  is  no  country  in  the  world  more  jealous  of  liberty  and 
more  averse  to  any  form  of  usurpation  than  our  sister  republic 
of  Switzerland.  It  rejoices  in  being  the  land  of  freedom.  It 
glories  in  free  schools,  free  speech,  free  press,  free  trade,  free 
roads,  free  bridges ;  for  its  roads,  though  the  best  in  Europe, 
are  without  toll,  and  even  the  most  costly  suspension  bridges 
are  free.  It  has  freedom  in  religion  and  freedom  in  traveling, 
no  passports  being  required  and  no  examination  of  luggage  ; 
no  standing  army,  and  no  gensd^armes  brandishing  the  threaten- 
ing hand  of  power,  as  everywhere  else  in  Europe.  And  yet 
this  free  people  in  all  their  twenty-two  cantons,  except  four  of 
the  smallest,  choose  for  themselves  the  system  of  compulsory 
attendance.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  with  some  rare  exceptions, 
every  healthy  child  in  his  turn  attends  school.  Director  Max 
Wirth  of  Bern  proudly  asserts  that  "  no  grown  up  boy  or  girl 
exists  in  this  confederation — save  an  idiot  here  and  there — 
who  cannot  read  and  write,"  Till  he  is  six  or  in  some  can- 
tons seven  years  of  age,  the  Swiss  child  may  only  dream  of 
school,  as  he  sees  his  brother  or  sister  going  thither  before 
seven  o'clock  in  summer,  and  eight  in  winter.  Swiss  parents 
see  to  it  that  these  shall  be  pleasant  dreams.  The  school  is  the 
center  of  attraction  and  interest.  Attendance  is  held  as  a  privi- 
lege rather  than  a  legal  necessity.  The  law  itself  has  helped 
6 


8Q  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

to  invest  the  school  with  dignity  and  honor.  "Attention  to 
his  school  is  not  a  fixed  and  formal  business  to. a  Switzer,  as  it 
might  be  to  a  Briton  and  a  Frank,  but  an  unceasing  and 
engrossing  duty  from  his  cradle  to  his  grave."  The  cost  of 
education  in  Switzerland  is,  for  them,  immense — greater  than 
that  of  the  army.  In  contrast  with  Switzerland,  France  spends 
fifteen  times  more  for  the  army  than  for  schools,  and  even  in 
London  and  Berlin  the  war  budgets  are  in  excess  of  the  edu- 
cation budgets.  The  cost  of  education  in  Switzerland  is  con- 
siderably over  two  millions,  while  that  of  army  is  less  than  two 
millions. 

In  our  own  country  there  is  efvery  assurance  of  kindness  and 
conciliation  in  the  execution  of  this  law.  The  plan  is  truly 
democratic,  for  its  entire  management  is  for  the  people,  and  by 
the  people,  through  school  officers  chosen  by  and  responsible  to 
them.  In  1871,  Connecticut  passed  a  law  enforcing  attendance 
at  school  of  all  children  discharged  from  factory  or  other  work 
for  that  purpose,  with  a  penalty  of  five  dollars  a  week  for  every 
week  of  non-attendance,  not  exceeding  thirteen  weeks  in  each 
year.  The  people  plainly  approve  that  law,  stringent  as  are  its 
provisions.  It  has  already  accomplished  great  good,  and  brought 
into  the  schools  many  children  who  otherwise  would  be  absen- 
tees. There  have  been  no  penalties,  no  prosecutions,  no  oppo- 
sition even.  The  law  itself  has  been  a  moral  force.  It  is  itself 
an  effective  advocate  of  education  to  the  very  class  who  need  it 
most.  In  1872  the  same  law  was  made  universal  in  its  applica- 
tion. The  official  returns  for  the  current  year  since  the  latter 
law  went  into  operation  have  not  yet  been  received.  The  law 
is  generally  approved  and  its  wisdom  and  necessity  are  admitted. 
Since  its  enactment,  no  article,  editorial  or  contributed  in  any 
Connecticut  paper  has  expressed  disapproval  of  it,  so  far  as  my 
knowledge  extends.  It  is  certainly  increasing  the  a^ttendance 
in  many  places.  The  Trustees  of  the  State  Reform  School  say 
it  has  already  lessened  commitments  to  that  institution.  As 
yet  there  have  been  no  prosecutions  under  this  law.  Persua- 
sion rather  than  penalties  should  be  the  main  reliance.  Bat 
kindness  and  argument  prove  more  effective  when  it  is  under- 
stood that  the  sanctions  of  law  might  be  employed. 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  87 

It  is  largely  through  immigration  that  the  number  of  ignorant, 
vagrant,  and  criminal  youth  has  recently  multiplied  to  an  ex- 
tent truly  alarming  in  some  of  our  cities.  Their  depravity  is 
sometimes  defiant,  and  their  resistance  to  moral  suasion  is  obsti- 
nate. When  personal  effort,  and  persuasion,  and  organized 
benevolence  have  utterly  failed,  let  the  law  take  them  in  hand, 
first  to  the  public  school,  and  if  there  incorrigible,  then  to  the 
reform  school.  Those  who  need  education  most  and  prize  it 
least  are  fit  subjects  for  coercion,  when  all  persuasives  are  in 
vain.  The  great  influx  of  this  foreign  element  has  so  far 
changed  the  condition  of  society  as  to  require  new  legislation 
to  meet  the  new  exigency.  The  logic  of  events  demands  the 
recognition  of  compulsion,  for  we  have  imported  parents  so  im- 
bruted  as  to  compel  their  young  children  to  work  for  their  grog, 
and  even  to  beg  and  steal  in  the  streets  when  they  should  be  in 
school. 

"  Compulsory  education  is  monarchical  in  its  origin  and  his- 
tory." Common  as  is  this  impression,  it  is  erroneous  to  say 
"  It  is  an  exotic,  a  plant  of  foreign  growth  which  can  never  be 
transplanted  here."  In  Connecticut,  certainly,  it  is.  indigenous, 
and  for  more  than  a  century  it  grew  with  the  vigor  of  a  native 
stock.  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut  may  justly  claim  to  be 
the  first  States  in  the  world  to  establish  the  principle  of  compul  - 
sory  education.  On  this  point  their  earliest  laws  were  most 
rigid.  They  need  but  slight  modification  to  adapt  them  to  the 
changed  circumstances  of  the  present.  Before  the  peace  of 
Westphalia,  before  Prussia  existed  as  a  kingdom,  and  while 
Frederick  William  was  only  "  elector  of  Brandenberg,"  Massa- 
chusetts and  Connecticut  adopted  coercive  education.  The 
Connecticut  code  of  1650  comprised  the  most  stringent  provi- 
sions for  compulsory  education.  The  selectmen  were  required 
to  see  that  so  much  •'  harharism'  was  not  permitted  in  any 
family  ''  as  that  their  children  should  not  be  able  perfectly  to 
read  the  English  tongue  ....  upon  penalty  of  twenty 
shillings  for  each  neglect  therein."  "If  after  the  said  fines 
paid  or  levied,  the  said  officers  shall  still  find  a  continuance 
of  the  former  negligence,  every  such  parent  may  be  summoned 
to  the  next  court  of  magistrates,  who  are  to  proceed  as  they 
find  cause,  either  to  a  greater  fine,  or  may  take  such  children 


88  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

from  such  parents  and  place  them  for  years,  boys  till  they 
come  to  the  age  of  one-and-twenty,  and  girls  till  they  come  to 
the  age  of  eighteen  years,  with  such  others  who  shall  better 
educate  and  govern  them,  both  for  the  public  convenience 
and  for  the  particular  good  of  the  said  children." 

In  our  early  history,  public  opinion  so  heartily  indorsed  the 
principle  of  compulsory  attendance,  or  rather,  so  thoroughly 
accepted  the  necessity  of  universal  education  and  so  generally 
desired  and  secured  it  for  children  and  wards,  that  attendance 
lost  its  involuntary  character.  ISTo  doubt  the  law  itself  origin- 
ally contributed  to  diffuse  and  deepen  this  sentiment.  If  at 
first  it  was  the  cause,  it  became  at  length  only  the  expression 
of  public  opinion.  The  requirement  of  this  law,  that  "  the  har- 
bartsm^^  of  ignorance  should  not  be  tolerated  in  any  family, 
helped  to  make  it  disgraceful  to  keep  even  an  apprentice  from 
school.  To  bring  up  a  child  or  ward  in  ignorance  was  shameful 
and  barbarous  in  the  eyes  of  our  fathers.  This  is  still  the  senti- 
ment of  the  genuine  "Yankee."  High  appreciation  of  educa- 
!tion  is  one  of  the  most  precious  traditions  of  New  England. 
To  it  we  owe  our  growth,  prosperity  and  liberty.  But  now  we 
are  a  polyglot  people.  Immigrants  from  every  nation  of  Europe 
abound,  and  some  have  come  from  Asia  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea.  The  Germans  and  the  Jews,  the  Hollanders,  Scotch, 
Swedes  and  Swiss,  almost  without  exception,  and  most  of  the 
Irish,  favor  universal  education.  But  there  have  come  among 
us  many,  ignorant  themselves,  and  caring  not  if  their  children 
grow  up  like  them.  They  are  so  ignorant  as  to  be  insensible 
to  the  evils  of  illiteracy.  Yet,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a 
growing  number  of  immigrants,  who,  realizing  how  they  have 
suffered  all  their  lives  from  ignorance,  desire  a  good  education 
for  their  children. 

The  most  plausible  objection  to  such  a  law  is  that  it  would 
sometimes  bring  hardship  upon  poor  parents.  But  the  Connec- 
ticut law  provides  for  extreme  cases,  and  authorizes  the  school 
officers  to  make  such  exceptions  as  necessity  may  require.  No 
public  of&cers  will  show  more  sympathy  for  the  poor  than  they. 
In  their  hands  the  administration  of  the  law  will  be  kind  and 
paternal.  The  right  to  enforce  will  be  used  mainly  as  an  argu- 
ment to  persuade — an  authoritative  appeal  to  good  sense  and 


LEGAL   PEEVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  89 

parental  pride.  If  any  parents  are  too  poor  to  send  their  chil- 
dren to  school,  individual  charities  or  town  benefactions  cannot 
be  better  expended  than  for  their  relief  Pauperism  cannot 
always  be  prevented,  but  illiteracy  may  be.  Even  paupers 
should  not  be  left  to  transmit  their  pauperism,  by  robbing  their 
children  of  the  sacred  rights  of  education.  If  the  schooling  of 
all  should  involve  some  hardships,  evils  more  and  greater  far 
would  follow  from  ignorance.  Better  stint  the  stomach  for 
three  months  a  year  than  famish  the  mind  for  life.  There  need 
be,  and  in  this  land  of  plenty  there  would  be,  no  starvation  to 
the  body,  while  that  education  is  insured  which  will  lessen  the 
amount  of  hardship  and  poverty  a  thousand -fold. 

It  has  been  objected  that  the  school  system  has  taken  so  deep 
a  root  in  the  sympathies  and  social  habits  of  the  German  people 
that  attendance  would  be  just  as  large  without  the  law  as  it  is 
now.  It  may  be  so.  But  so  far  from  being  an  objection,  this 
fact  is  strong  proof  of  the  efficiency  of  that  law  which  has  itself 
helped  to  create  so  healthful  a  public  sentiment.  Were  the  law 
to  be  abrogated  to-morrow,  the  individual  and  general  interest 
in  public  education  would  remain.  The  same  might  have  been 
said  of  Connecticut  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy 
years  after  the  adoption  of  compulsory  education.  During  all 
that  period,  a  native  of  this  State,  of  mature  age  and  sound 
mind,  unable  to  read  the  English  language,  would  have  been 
looked  upon  as  a  prodigy.  Such  a  citizen  of  the  old  New 
England  stock  I  have  never  met.  Still,  in  Connecticut,  as  well 
as  in  Germany,  it  was  the  law  itself  which  greatly  aided  in 
awakening  public  interest,  and  in  fixing  the  habits,  associations 
and  traditions  of  the  people. 

It  has  been  said  that,  "  In  some  countries,  without  any  coer- 
cive law,  the  attendance  is  as  good  as  in  Prussia  or  Saxony  with 
such  a  law."  This  is  simply  a  mistake.  Holland  has  been 
cited  as  an  illustration  of  this  statement.  But  while  the  Dutch 
show  commendable  zeal  for  public  schools,  the  attendance  is 
not  relatively  so  large  as  in  Prussia,  and  illiteracy  is  by  no 
means  so  rare  as  in  Germany.  But  Holland  has^  indirectly,  a 
system  of  compulsory  attendance.  It  denies  certain  immunities 
and  privileges  and  honors  to  the  uneducated.  The  parents  of 
children  who  are  not  instructed  up  to  the  required  standard 


90  tEGAL   PREVENTION   OF  ILLITERACY. 

cannot  receive  relief  from  certain  charitable  institutions.  The 
ban  of  legal  condemnation  falls  upon  them  as  truly,  though  not 
so  effectively,  as  in  Prussia. 

In  Eotterdam,  Hague,  Amsterdam,  and  elsewhere  in  Holland, 
I  was  assured  that  the  working  classes  regard  the  school  law  as 
practically  compulsory.  No  one  is  permitted  to  teach  even  a 
private  school  who  has  not  been  duly  "  examined  and  ap- 
proved," and  the  public  supervision  includes  private  as  well  as 
public  schools. 

The  tendency  throughout  all  Europe  is  more  than  ever 
toward  the  recognition  of  the  right  and  duty  of  the  State  to 
educate  its  entire  population.  Public  sentiment,  educated  by 
recent  events,  now  connects  ignorance  with  crime  and  poverty, 
with  individual  and  national  weakness,  as  cause  and  effect. 
Sadowa  taught  Austria,  and  indeed  all  Europe,  a  salutary  lesson. 
"Defeated  in  war,  let  it  be  our  policy  to  excel  in  the  arts  of 
peace,"  became  the  national  idea  under  the  inspiration  of  Count 
Beust.  There  was  no  wasting  of  zeal  and  strength  in  the  mad 
cry  of  revenge,  as  now  in  prostrate  France.  Austria  was  not 
unwilling  to  learn  from  an  enemy,  and  adopted  the  educational 
system  of  her  conqueror.  Her  school  system  was  re-organized 
and  vitalized,  and  the  principle  of  compulsory  attendance  made 
prominent.  Education  is  obligatory  in  Denmark,  Norway  and 
Sweden,  and  also  in  Switzerland,  except  in  the  four  small  can- 
tons of  G-eneva,  Schy  wz,  Uri  and  Unterwalden.  The  total  pop- 
ulation of  these  four  cantons  is  less  than  one-seventeenth  that 
of  the  whole  nation.  The  new  school  law  of  Italy  provides  for 
both  free  schools  and  obligatory  attendance,  and  includes  the 
following  important  ''  Civil  Service  Eeform  :"  "No  one  can  be 
appointed  to  any  State,  Provincial,  or  Communal  office  what- 
ever, who  cannot  read  and  write." 

More  than  thirty  years  ago,  Guizot,  in  his  Educational  Re- 
port to  the  French  G-overnment,  ably  opposed  obligatory  edu- 
cation "  as  the  creature  of  centralization  and  as  one  of  those 
rules  which  bear  the  mark  of  the  convent  or  the  barrack," 
but  the  recent  experience  of  France  has  changed  his  views, 
and  now  he  is  its  earnest  advocate.  That  one  of  his  advanced 
age,  long  ranked  among  the  foremost  men  of  France  both 
as  a  scholar  and  statesman,  cautious,  yet  positive  in  his  con- 


LEGAL   PKEVENTION   OF  ILLITERACY.  .    91 

victions,  a  historian  in  liis  tastes  and  studies,  and  therefore 
conservative,  should  now  stoutly  advocate  that  compulsory  sys- 
tem which  he  so  successfully  opposed  when  himself  the  Minis- 
ter of  Public  Instruction,  in  1833,  is  significant  The  logic  of 
events  during  the  last  forty  years  proves  that  the  very  system 
which  he  largely  originated  is  unsuited  to  the  wants  of  the 
nation  and  the  age.  M.  Jules  Simon,  late  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction,  explained  to  me  his  plan  for  the  re-organization  of 
Primary  Instruction,  by  making  it  both  gratuitous  and  compul- 
sory. The  penalties  were  to  be  a  maximum  fine  of  one  hundred 
francs,  and  loss  of  suffrage  for  three  years.  After  the  year  1880, 
no  citizen  was  to  become  a  voter  who  could  not  read  and  write. 
But  his  bill  was  promptly  rejected  at  Yersailles.  While  Thiers 
proposed  an  increase  of  eighty  millions  in  the  budget  for  the 
army,  he  said  nothing  for  education.  Even  under  Napoleon, 
fifteen  times  more  was  spent  for  the  army  than  for  education, 
including  Primary,  Secondary  and  Superior.  The  provisions 
for  Superior  education  were  liberal,  and  absorbed  nearly  one- 
half  of  the  whole  appropriation,  leaving  the  Primary  schools 
most  meager,  both  in  quantity  and  quality.  The  [Jltramontane 
party,  now  dominant,  stoutly  oppose  both  gratuitous  and  obli- 
gatory instruction,  and  little  is  likely  to  be  done  for  the  better 
education  of  the  masses.  The  objection  that  obligatory  instruc- 
tion would  challenge  resistance  as  an  act  of  usurpation,  seems 
ludicrous  in  a  land  where  military  conscription  and  the  most 
rigorous  police  surveillance  are  universal  and  unresisted.  Gam- 
betta  as  well  as  Gruizot,  and  the  liberal  republicans,  strongly 
advocate  obligatory  instruction.  Even  the  Commune  favored 
universal  and  compulsory  education,  as  also  do  the  majority  of 
the  Parisians  still.  The  opposition  comes  from  the  clerical  and 
conservative  parties. 

The  new  school  law  of  England  permits  all  local  Boards  to 
enforce  attendance.  Public  sentiment  throughout  England  is 
now  changing  rapidly  in  favor  of  making  compulsory  attendance 
national  and  universal,  instead  of  permissive.  As  one  of  many 
illustrations  of  the  change,  Kev.  Canon  Kingsley,  formerly 
favoring  non-compulsion,  now  advocates  the  compulsory  prin- 
ciple. 


92  LEGAL   PEEVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

The  motto  of  tiie  National  Educational  League,  of  which 
George  Dixon,  M.  P.,  is  President,  is,  "  Education  must  be 
Universal,  Unsectarian,  Compulsory."  At  the  General  Con- 
ference of  Nonconformists,  held  in  Manchester,  January, 
1872,  and  attended  by  1,885  delegates,  there  was  great  unan- 
imity in  favor  of  enforced  attendance.  This  assembly  was 
as  remarkable  in  its  character  as  its  numbers.  The  argument 
of  Mr.  Jacob  Bright,  M.  P.,  on  this  subject  was  received  with 
great  applause.  He  said  that  the  best  part  of  the  Education 
Act,  that  which  is  worth  all  the  rest  put  together,  is  the  per- 
mission to  compel  attendance,  which  should  be  the  absolute 
law  throughout  the  entire  kingdom. 

The  laboring  classes  are  not  opposed  to  such  a  law.  They 
advocate  it  and  would  welcome  it.  The  fear  so  often  expressed 
that  compulsory  education  would  be  offensive  to  the  laboring 
classes  as  a  usurpation  of  parental  and  popular  rights  seems 
unfounded.  Certainly  in  Europe  the  workingmen  in  their 
various  conventions  show  a  remarkable  unanimity  on  this  sub- 
ject. At  the  late  International  Workingmen 's  (Congress  held 
at  Lausanne,  the  subject  was  fully  discussed.  The  sentiment 
cordially  adopted  was,  "  Education  should  be  universal,  com- 
pulsory and  national,  but  not  denominational."  Such  declara- 
tions of  the  workingmen  refute  the  objection  that  the  prepo- 
sessions  of  the  masses  are  against  obligatory  education.  Be- 
ginning with  the  Eeformation,  and  first  fully  applied  in  demo- 
cratic New  England,  "  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean  it  is  associated 
with  the  growth  of  liberty.  One  of  the  blows  dealt  against 
the  ancient  regime  by  the  French  Revolution  was  the  establish- 
ment of  compulsory  education,  showing  what  was  thought 
liberal  by  those  to  whom  liberalism  was  a  matter  of  life  and 
death."  In  England  the  working  classes  are  asking  for  a 
Tiational  compulsory  system  of  education.  By  invitation  of  A. 
J.  Mundella,  M.  P.,  I  attended  the  National  Trades-Union  Con- 
gress, held  at  Nottingham  for  the  week  beginning  January  8th, 
1872.  That  body  seemed  unanimous  in  favor  of  compulsory 
attendance.  One  of  the  leading  members,  an  able  and  effective 
speaker,  said  that  in  large  and  crowded  assemblies  of  working- 
men  he  had  often  distinctly  asked,  "  Do  you  agree  with  me 
that  we  want  a  national  compukory  system  of  education?"  and 


LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY.  93 

not  a  dissenting  voice  had  he  ever  heard  from  the  working- 
men. 

The  leader  in  the  new  organization  of  the  agricultural 
laborers  of  England,  Joseph  Arch,  in  a  paper  read  at  the  last 
annual  meeting  of  this  National  Congress,  held  in  Leeds  during 
the  second  week  of  January,  1873,  advocated  universal  and 
compulsory  education.  Himself  a  farm  laborer,  he  was  denied 
early  school  advantages.  From  his  own  bitter  experience  he 
is  led  strongly  to  condemn  the  virtual  exclusion  of  children 
from  school  by  their  constant  employment  in  factories,  farms 
and  workshops.  "  Child  labor  means  pauperism,  crime,  igno- 
rance, immorality  and  every  evil,"  is  his  motto.  Joseph  Arch, 
who  taught  himself  to  read,  aided  only  by  some  associate  mem- 
bers of  the  "  Primitive  Methodist "  Church,  may  be  fairly 
regarded  as  a  representative  of  the  laboring  classes.  Gifted  by 
nature,  he  has  already  become  the  idol  of  the  farm  laborers,  and 
eminent  members  of  Parliament,  like  Samuel  Morley,  Geo. 
Dixon,  Thomas  Hughes,  Lord  Fitzmaurice,  the  Hon.  Auberon 
Herbert,  and  others,  are  openly  co-operating  with  him.  The 
Congress  at  Leeds  heartily  endorsed  and  supported  his  views. 

The  latest  reports  from  England  show  that  the  attendance  has 
increased  most  in  those  towns  which  adopted  the  compulsory 
system.  This  plan  is  no  longer  an  experiment  in  England. 
The  absence  of  all  opposition  from  the  lower  classes,  and  the 
good  effects  already  witnessed,  commend  this  measure  to  gen- 
eral favor.  It  is  expected  that  the  permissive  clause  will  be 
dropped  by  the  next  Parliament,  and  compulsory  attendance 
be  made  universal. 

In  the  discussion  of  the  Education  Act  Amendment  Bill,  in 
Parliament,  during  the  present  summer,  Mr.  W.  E.  Forster,  the 
author  of  the  original  bill  and  Head  of  the  National  Educa- 
tional Department,  speaks  of  himself  as  long  since  "  an  advo- 
cate of  compulsory  education.  It  is  due  to  myself  to  say 
that  as  regards  compulsory  attendance  I  have  personally  the 
same  opinion  as  that  which  I  expressed  in  debate  last  year. 
It  is  my  conviction  that  direct  compulsion  might  be  safely 
made  the  general  law  for  England  and  Wales.  But  I  do  not 
deny,  that  if  we  are  mistaken  in  this  opinion,  a  premature  step 
would  be  fatal  to  our  own  cause."     The  National  School  Sys- 

-^^^^^ 
>^  OP  THB    ^. 

UNI7EIISIT7?, 


94  LEGAL   PREVENTION   OF   ILLITERACY. 

tern  of  England,  being  not  yet  three  years  old,  requires  careful 
nursing  in  its  infancy.  The  schools  are  not  free,  but  supported 
in  part  by  a  small  rate  or  tuition al  charge.  Mr.  Forster  adds, 
^'  Compulsion  must  fail  if  we  try  to  punish  a  parent  who  is  too 
poor  to  pay  a  school  fee,  for  not  sending  his  child  to  school. 
There  are  in  the  kingdom  at  least  200,000  children  of  school 
age,  of  out-doors  paupers^  I  fear  there  are  more, — and  from  among 
these  children  come  a  large  proportion  of  those  whose  educa- 
tion is  neglected."  The  required  fees  or  tuitional  charge 
furnish  the  most  serious  obstacle  in  the  way  of  enforced  atten- 
dance. Let  the  schools  be  made  free  as  everywhere  in  Switzer- 
land and  the  United  States,  and  this  great  difficulty  vanishes. 
The  fear  that  it  would  tend  to  pauperize  the  people  to  give 
schooling  free  to  all  is  groundless.  When  schools  are  supported 
by  taxation,  all  contribute  alike  in  proportion  to  their  means. 
Instead  of  pauperizing  the  people,  it  liberalizes  and  enriches 
them.  In  Switzerland,  the  land  of  free  schools,  there  is  less 
pauperism  than  in  any  other  country  of  Europe.  "The  school 
fee"  ol*  rate-bill,  as  it  was  here  called,  was  fully  tried  in  many 
American  States,  for  long  periods  and  under  varying  circum- 
stances, and  it  was  everywhere  "  found  wanting."  All  experi- 
ence in  this  country  favors  free  schools,  and  this  is  now  the 
universal  system  in  the  United  States.  Wherever  repealed, 
the  rate-bill  has  never  been  re-enacted,  and  the  free  system 
once  tried  has  been  retained. 

It  is  admitted  that  the  school  fees  repel  large  numbers  from 
the  schools  of  England,  and  form  the  chief  hindrance  to  the 
compulsory  system.  On  this  subject  the  test  of  experience 
was  decisive  in  Connecticut,  when  in  1870  the  first  years'  trial  of 
free  schools  showed  a  great  increase  of  attendance,  and  proved 
that  nearly  6000  children  had  been  regularly  kept  from  school, 
by  the  "  odious  rate-bill,"  which  was  almost  unanimously  con- 
demned by  the  people  as  burdensome  to  the  poor,  imposing  an 
unequal  tax  upon  those  more  blessed  with  children  than  in 
their  basket  and  store,  becoming  a  tax  upon  parental  affection 
and  a  barrier  between  poverty  and  intelligence. 

Experience  has  disproved  the  objection  that  free  schools 
would  lessen  the  interest  and  responsibility  of  parents.  The 
argument  was,  that  men  never  value  what  costs  them  nothing. 


LEGAL   PREVENTION  OF   ILLITERACY.  95 

But  the  fact  is  that  all  parents  do  pay,  according  to  their 
means,  their  fair  and  equal  share  for  the  support  of  this 
central  public  interest.  This  system  not  only  enhances  the 
interest  of  the  parent,  but  dignifies  the  school  in  the  esteem 
of  the  pupils,  and  quickens  the  educational  spiiit  of  the  whole 
people.  Every  tax  payer,  having  contributed  his  share  to  the 
support  of  the  schools,  even  if  it  be  only  his  poll-tax,  naturally 
looks  after  this  investment.  Such  was  our  theory,  and  now  we 
say  such  is  the  fact.  The  school  registers  show  a  great  increase 
in  the  number  of  visits  of  parents  to  the  schools.  The  united 
testimony  of  teachers  and  school  officers  affirms  the  quickened 
sympathy  and  zeal  of  parents.  Their  visits  to  the  school-room 
are  always  welcome.  Where  all  are  partners  in  the  concern, 
none  need  be  debarred  by  fear  of  intrusion.  Our  best  teachers 
most  cordially  welcome  the  visits  of  even  the  humblest  pa- 
rents. There  is  ample  evidence  that  the  "free  system"  has 
in  many  ways  increased  the  efficiency  and  popularity  of  pubjic 
schools.  Such  it  is  confidently  believed  would  be  the  result 
in  England.  Then  the  compulsory  system  would  work  as  well 
there  as  in  Switzerland. 


CULTUEE   AND    KNOWLEDGE. 

The  motto  of  President  Woolsey  so  mach  applauded  at  the 
last  commencement  of  Yale  College,  applies  to  the  College  no 
more  than  to  the  Common  School.  In  the  primary  classes  as 
truly  as  in  the  University,  "  we  should  place  character  before 
culture  and  culture  before  knowledge." 

The  theory  of  Education  is  an  important  subject  of  investi- 
gation for  teachers  and  school  officers.  While  there  is  general 
agreement  as  to  the  end  of  Collegiate  studies,  widely  different 
views  still  prevail  in  regard  to  the  primary  purpose  of  a  Com- 
mon School  education,  and  of  course,  to  the  processes  of  attain- 
ing it,  for  the  theory  of  education  w^hich  is  adopted  will  sub- 
ordinate all  the  processes  to  itself.  Correct  views  on  this  sub- 
ject are  of  the  utmost  consequence.  It  is  very  desirable  that 
parents  as  well  as  teachers  and  School  Officers  should  investi- 
gate this  topic  and  acquire  definite  and  settled  views  upon  it, 
in  order  that  there  may  be  harmony  of  plans  and  sentiments, 
and  efficient  cooperation  between  them. 

Complaints  are  sometimes  urged  against  teachers  for  intro- 
ducing Object  Lessons,  Drawing,  and  Map-Drawing,  "Mental 
Combinations"  in  Arithmetic,  various  blackboard  exercises, 
LessoDs  in  English  Language  and  Literature,  with  the  memor- 
izing of  choice  selections  in  poetry  and  prose,  and  other  im- 
proved methods  of  instruction  which  now  have  the  sanction 
of  the  most  experienced  and  successful  educators.  These  ob- 
jections arise  from  the  novelty  of  the  measures  adopted  and 
the  fact  that  the  reasons  that  favor  them  are  not  yet  understood. 

As  all  truth  is  in  harmony,  so  the  best  processes  of  acquiring 
truth  accord  with  the  conditions  of  mental  growth.  The  true 
processes  to  develop  each  faculty  of  the  juvenile  mind  are 
identical  with  the  best  methods  both  of  gaining  and  retaining 
knowledge.  The  alphabet  itself  is  learned  most  rapidly,  when 
it  is  used  as  a  means  of  observing  and  remembering  given 
sounds  and  forms.     The  teacher  w^ho  aims  thus  to  train  the 


CULTURE  AND   KNOWLEDGE.  97 

ear,  tlie  eye  and  the  voice,  makes  sliort  as  well  as  pleasant 
work  of  the  a,  b,  c's.  Even  the  simple  exercise  of  spelling 
may  and  should  be  disciplinary.  With  beginners,  spelling 
should  be  the  chief  exercise,  commenced  the  first  day  of  school 
attendance  before  they  have  completed  the  alphabet,  and  as 
soon  as  three  or  four  letters  are  learned.  The  early  printing  of 
words  on  the  slate  and  blackboard  imprints  their  form  on  the 
memory,  thus  training  both  the  eye  and  the  hand.  Increasing 
observation  confirms  my  belief  that  the  art  of  spelling  may  be 
essentially  completed  under  twelve  years  of  age. 

The  memory  changes  with  our  years  and  acquisitions.  In 
early  life  it  is  circumstantial,  at  a  later  period,  philosophical ; 
that  is,  the  little  child  naturally  and  easily  grasps  items  and 
details,  like  words  and  their  forms.  In  riper  years,  while  the 
memory  grows  more  tenacious  of  principles,  comprehensive 
facts,  general  truths  and  classifications,  it  retains  such  minutiae 
with  difficulty.  While  the  reflective  faculties  are  yet  latent 
and  the  child  is  unprepared  for  grammar  or  any  study  specially 
exercising  these  faculties,  and  when  the  perceptive  powers  are 
most  active,  is  the  favorable  time  for  the  mastery  of  spelling. 
Though  the  child  can  now  do  little  in  any  of  the  higher  studies, 
he  can  accomplish  most  in  this.  Spelling  and  reading  go 
together.  If  early  and  rightly  taught,  spelling  more  than  any- 
thing else  will  facilitate  reading.  As  the  most  important  study 
in  the  elementary  school,  the  latter  deserves  far  more  promi- 
nence, as  well  as  improved  methods  of  teaching  it.  It  is  no 
exaggeration  to  say  that  four-fold  more  time  should  be  devoted 
to  this  fundamental  study  in  the  primary  school.  In  compari- 
son with  its  importance^  no  subject  is  usually  so  much  neglected 
and  so  poorly  taught. 

In  visiting  many  thousand  schools  for  the  last  twenty  years, 
I  have  had  occasion  to  observe  how  generally  proficiency  in 
this,  one  department  infuses  new  interest  into  every  other 
study  and  elevates  the  whole  school.  Such  results  often  wit- 
nessed seem  to  demonstrate  the  wisdom  and  necessity  of  the 
change  above  named.  What  a  revolution  would  be  seen  in 
our  higher  schools  and  with  all  advanced  classes  if  the  dreaded 
"  drudgery  "  of  spelling  and  the  difficulties  of  mere  reading, 
I  do  not  here  speak  of  elocution — were  completed  under  ten 


98  CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

or  twelve  years  of  age.  The  ability  to  recognize  ordinary 
words  at  sight,  and  thus  read  with  rapidity  and  without  con- 
scious effort,  gives  to  the  juvenile  mind  the  encouragement  and 
impetus  which  it  then  most  needs.  This  is  the  surest  method 
to  facilitate  all  other  and  higher  studies,  for  early  mastery  of 
this  art  fosters  a  love  ot  reading  and  a  fondness  for  books,  while 
aversion  to  study  and  hatred  of  school  are  often  produced  by 
tasking  children  in  grammar  and  kindred  studies,  before  they 
can  readily  read  and  understand  them.  Once  implant  a  love 
of  reading,  and  you  have  a  strong  pledge  of  scholarship 
through  life. 

Instead  of  being  a  monotonous  and  mechanical  drill,  spelling, 
by  a  great  variety  of  methods,  should  be  made  an  attractive 
and  intellectual  exercise ;  pursued  not  merely  to  learn  the  lite- 
ral elements  of  words,  but  for  the  higher  aim  of  cultivating 
the  eye  and  conceptive  faculty,  acquiring  the  power  to  bring 
before  the  mind's  eye  the  form  of  a  word  as  a  unit^  as  it  looks 
on  the  printed  page,  just  as  one  would  so  carefully  examine  a 
robin,  a  dog,  a  rose  or  a  picture,  as  to  be  able  vividly  to  recall 
the  image  of  the  object.  It  is  a  great  and  most  important  art 
to  see  so  accurately,  that  one's  conception  of  visible  objects 
may  ever  be  as  clear  and  distinct  as  were  the  original  percep- 
tions. This  process  early  developed  in  spelling  may  be  repeated 
at  will  in  reference  to  any  objects  of  perception  and  descrip- 
tion, and  thus  the  child  gains  a  new  and  invaluable  power 
which  enters  into  all  the  graver  operations  of  the  mind  in  natu- 
ral science,  history,  poetry,  and  the  fine  arts.  The  principle 
w^hich  I  have  illustrated  in  regard  to  the  alphabet  and  spelling 
is  of  general  application.  Any  and  every  study  is  more  thor- 
oughly mastered  when  it  is  pursued  not  as  an  end,  but  as  a 
means  of  the  higher  end  of  mental  culture. 

Many  parents  seem  to  labor  under  the  mistaken  impression, 
that  the  attainment  of  knowledge  is  the  first  if  not  the  only 
thing  to  be  aimed  at  in  school,  while  the  training  of  the  faculties 
is  regarded  as  a  matter  of  secondary  importance.  The  power 
of  repeating,  parrot-like,  what  has  been  crowded  into  the  mem- 
ory, is  looked  upon  as  the  highest  evidence  of  scholarship. 
The  quantity,  rather  than  the  quality  of  attainment,  is  with 
them  the  test  of  improvement     The  great  work  of  education 


CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE.  99 

is  thus  reduced  to  a  mere  system  of  mnemotechny.  Instead  of 
seeking  to  discipline  and  develop  the  faculties  of  the  pupil,  his 
mind  is  treated  as  a  mere  receptacle,  which  is  somehow—  and  in 
their  view  it  matters  little  how — to  be  filled. 

It  is  not  strange  that  where  such  views  prevail,  a  mechanical 
method  of  instruction  should  be  followed,  which  goes  through  a 
certain  routine  of  mnemonic  exercises,  without  any  definite  aim 
to  train  the  mind  and  awaken  thought  and  reflection.  Nor 
should  it  be  a  matter  of  surprise,  when  we  witness  the  legiti- 
mate results  of  such  a  system,  and  see  pupils  pass  through  the 
ordinary  course  of  study  with  little  control  over  their  minds, 
utterly  deficient  in  the  power  of  application,  with  little  interest 
in  study,  and  without  any  purpose  or  prospect  of  future  improve- 
ment. Thus  the  most  ample  and  varied  acquisitions  become  of 
little  worth,  because  there  is  no  power  to  use  them,  to  arrange 
and  classify  them,  and  form  new  combinations.  For  it  is  the 
power  of  using  the  faculties  and  resources  of  the  mind,  in  which 
lies  the  secret  of  success. 

The  elements  of  the  several  branches  may  be  fixed  indelibly 
in  a  child's  memory ;  he  may  even  have  the  leading  facts  and 
principles  of  the  sciences  upon  his  tongue's  end,  and  become  a 
walking  encyclopedia,  and  yet  be  only  a  learned  driveler.  He 
can  tell  you  what  he  has  read  or  heard,  and  nothing  more. 
Take  him  off  the  beaten  track,  ask  him  any  inference  from  the 
stores  which  he  has  gained  memoriter^  and  he  is  dumb.  He 
has  not  learned  to  think  for  himself,  nor  ever  dreamed  that  the 
great  object  of  study  is  to  draw  out  and  exercise  the  various 
faculties  of  the  mind.  ^ 

The  habit  of  learning  words  and  formal  propositions  without 
understanding  their  meaning,  is  still  too  prevalent  in  our  schools. 
This  practice  arises  from  the  mistaken  theory  of  education 
under  consideration.  Such  superficial  attainments  are  always 
chaotic,  and  sometimes  worse  than  useless.  They  lead  the  pupil 
complacently  to  imagine  that  he  has  the  substance,  when  he 
has  only  the  shell  and  semblance  of  knowledge.  He  has  stud- 
ied the  book,  but  not  the  subject  of  which  it  treats.  A  sense 
of  our  ignorance  is  the  first  step  towards  knowledge ;  but  a 
system  of  instruction  which  leads  pupils  to  over-estimate  their 
attainments,  fosters  conceit  and  indolence,  and  removes  the 
incentives  to  study. 


100  CLTLTURE  AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

Our  Bcliools  still  suffer  greatly  from  too  frequent  changes  in 
teachers,  involving  confusion  and  discouragement,  if  not  retro- 
gression, in  the  school,  and  sacrificing  system,  efficiency  and 
progress.  When  a  teacher  thus  retains  a  school  for  a  single 
term  only,  he  finds  it  much  easier  to  hear  recitations  repeated 
by  rote,  than  to  secure  a  thorough  comprehension  of  the  prin- 
ciples which  they  involve.  He  is  strongly  tempted  to  overtask 
the  memory,  for  the  sake  of  flattering  parents  with  the  desired 
tokens  of  progress.  This  course  is  more  productive  of  imme- 
diate and  showy  results.  It  is  supposed  to  make  a  fine  display 
at  examinations.  Hence  the  lesson  must  be  committed  to 
memory,  whether  understood  or  not.  The  pupils  must  rehearse 
fluently,  although,  to  borrow  a  simile  of  Lord  Bolingbroke, 
"  they  rattle  on  as  meaningless  as  alarm-clocks  that  have  been 
prematurely  sprung." 

In  reference  to  the  permanency  of  their  teachers,  Grermany 
and  Switzerland  greatly  excel  us.  On  no  other  point  did  I 
hear  our  system  so  generally  and  justly  criticized  by  promi- 
nent educators  of  other  countries  as  in  regard  to  the  frequent 
changes  of  teachers  in  the  rural  portions  of  America.  They  were 
puzzled  by  the  fact  that  our  educational  reports  so  often  speak 
of  the  "  wages  "  instead  of  "  salaries  "  of  teachers  as  is  the  case 
everywhere  abroad — our  wages  being  so  much  a  lueeh  or  month. 
like  those  of  changeable  farm  or  factory  hands.  Kev.  Edward 
Kyerson,  D.D.,  the  able  Superintendent  of  Education  for  On- 
tario, from  personal  observations,  thoroughly  conversant  with 
American  schools^  gives  a  friendly  but  well -merited  criticism 
of  our  system  in  this  particular.  As  he  fully  appreciates  the 
excellences  of  our  schools  wherever  they  are  not  marred  by 
this  radical  defect,  and  as  by  the  improvements  introduced  into 
the  schools  of  Canada  West,  under  his  administration,  he  has 
practically  demonstrated  that  even  the  rural  districts  may  over- 
come this  difficulty,  I  commend  his  words  and  this  example 
of  Ontario,  to  all  friends  of  educational  progress : 

"  Now,  whatever  may  be  the  liberality  of  Legislatures, 
and  the  framework  of  the  school  system,  and  the  patriotic  as- 
pirations and  efforts  of  great  numbers  of  citizens,  in  such  a 
system  of  temporarily  employing  and  perpetually  changing 
teachers,  there  can  be  no  material  improvement  in  the  qualifi- 


CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE.  101 

cations  of  teachers  or  the  efficiency  of  the  schools,  or  the  edu- 
cation of  the  country  youth ;  but  the  lamentations  in  the 
annual  Keports  of  State  Superintendents  will,  in  my  opinion, 
be  the  next  ten  years  what  they  have  been  the  last  ten  years. 

In  Ontario  there  is  much  room  for  improvement  in  these 
respects  ;  but  we  have  a  national  programme  for  the  examina- 
tion and  distinct  classification  of  teachers,  and  nearly  uniform 
methods  of  examination  ;  our  teachers,  except  in  comparatively 
few  cases  of  trial,  are  almost  universally  employed  by  the  year, 
in  the  townships  equally  with  the  cities  and  towns.  By  our 
method  of  giving  aid  to  no  school  unless  kept  open  six  months  of 
a  year,  and  aiding  all  schools  in  proportion  to  the  average  atten- 
dance of  pupils  and  length  of  time  the  school  is  kept  open,  we 
have  succeeded  in  getting  our  schools  throughout  the  whole 
country  kept  open  nearly  eleven  months  out  of  the  twelve  ;  the 
teachers  are  thus  constantly  employed,  and  paid  annual  sala- 
ries ;  and  are  as  well  paid,  all  things  considered,  in  perhaps  a 
majority  of  the  country  schools,  as  in  cities  and  towns.  Some 
of  our  best  teachers  are  employed  in  country  schools,  a  very 
large  proportion  of  which  will  favorably  compare,  in  style  and 
fittings  of  school-house,  and  efficiency  of  teaching,  with  the 
schools  in  cities  and  towns.  Indeed,  for  several  years  at  the 
commencement  of  our  school  system,  the  country  parts  of  Upper 
Canada  took  the  lead,  with  few  exceptions,  of  our  cities,  towns 
and  villages.  Our  deficiences  and  shortcomings  in  these  re- 
spects I  shall  plainly  point  our  hereafter  ;  but  they  appear  to 
me  to  be  more  palpable,  and  to  exist  to  a  vastly  greater,  and 
even  fatal  extent,  among  our  American  neighbors — so  worthy 
of  our  admiration  in  many  of  their  industries  and  enterprises." 

This  glaring  evil  of  perpetual  change  claims  special  attention. 
In  chemistry,  in  the  arts  and  agriculture,  experiments,  however 
expensive,  are  often  necessary  and  useful.  Persevering  trials 
and  repeated  failures  usually  precede  and  sometimes  suggest 
valuable  inventions.  But  of  all  experimenting,  the  most  need- 
less, costly  and  fruitless,  and  yet  the  most  common,  is  the 
practice  of  "  placing  a  new  hand  at  the  wheel "  annually,  or 
even  twice  a  year,  in  our  school-houses.  When  passing  Hurl 
Gate  in  a  severe  storm,  I  observed  how  much  the  apprehen- 
sions of  timid  passengers  were  quieted  by  the  simple  state- 


102  CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

ment,  "  our  good  captain  has  run  safely  on  this  Sound  for 
forty  years."  The  assurance  that  an  experienced  hand  guided 
the  helm,  at  once  inspired  hope  and  confidence.  But  if  false 
economy,  prejudice,  caprice  or  favoritism  placed  new  captains 
or  pilots  twice  a  year  on  our  noble  "Sound  Steamers,"  how 
soon  would  they  be  condemned  and  forsaken  by  an  indignant 
public.  And  yet  not  a  few  committees  in  our  districts,  from 
mere  whim,  or  pique,  or  more  often  from  open  nepotism,  prac- 
tice a  system  of  change  in  teachers  which  introduces  confusion, 
waste,  weakness,  discouragement,  and  often  retrogression,  in 
place  of  system,  economy,  efficiency  and  progress.  This  is  a 
prolific  source  of  the  most  serious  defects  now  hindering  the 
usefulness  of  American  schools.  True,  there  has  been  an  en- 
couraging advance  for  some  years  in  respect  to  the  permanency 
of  teachers.  But  my  own  observation  convinces  me  that  there 
is  a  pressing  need  of  far  greater  progress  in  this  direction. 

There  are  towns  which  retain  the  old  system  of  semi-annual 
changes,  male  teachers  in  the  winter  and  female  in  the  summer, 
and  even  in  each  successive  summer  and  winter  the  same 
teachers  are  too  seldom  reemployed.  In  such  places  I  find  the 
schools  in  the  lowest  condition,  with  no  uniform  methods,  nor 
well  arranged  plan  consistently  and  persistently  sustained. 
This  system,  or  rather  want  of  system,  is,  to  so  great  an  extent, 
sacrificing  the  benefits  of  experience,  and  hindering  thoroughness 
of  instruction,  that  the  subject  demands  the  consideration  of  the 
people.  In  no  other  way  can  the  genuine  improvement  of  our 
schools  be  so  easily  and  economically  secured  as  by  employing 
better  qualified  and  more  permanent  teachers. 

It  often  requires  nearly  a  term  to  initiate  a  new  teacher  into 
the  policy  of  the  school  visitors,  who  officially  direct  his  course. 
He  cannot  perhaps  in  less  time  correct  the  mistakes  and  bad 
habits  formed  under  his  predecessor,  and  get  his  own  plans  and 
processes  fully  into  operation,  and  the  result  is  very  likely  to  be 
neglect  of  system.  The  conviction  that  there  will  not  be  time  to 
carry-  out  any  settled  policy,  and  that,  if  commenced,  it  may  be 
wholly  counteracted  by  an  incompetent  successor,  discourages 
the  attempt.  It  has  long  been  a  conceded  point  among  success- 
ful teachers,  that  a  second  term  in  the  same  school  is  worth  at 
least  one-third  more  than  the  first.     The  school-room  is  the 


CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE.  103 

most  unfortunate  place  for  those  experiments  which  "rotation 
in  office  "  must  here  involve — entailing  a  dead  loss  of  more 
than  thirty  per  cent,  of  the  expenditures  made  for  schools. 

A  teacher  must  learn  the  characters  of  his  pupils,  intellectual 
and  moral,  before  he  can  successfully  teach  them.  He  must 
make  each  child  a  study,  and  discover  both  the  faults  and  ex- 
cellences of  his  heart,  and  the  difficult  and  easy  processes  of 
his  mind.  He  must  avail  himself  of  every  means  to  find  out 
his  entire  character,  as  a  discriminating  physician  watches 
closely  all  the  symptoms  of  his  patient,  in  order  to  understand 
what  ought  to  be  done  for  him.  Until  he  knows  the  peculiari- 
ties, the  attainments  and  wants  of  each  pupil,  he  cannot  adapt 
himself  to  them,  and  must  work  in  the  dark.  There  is  a  great 
variety  of  methods  of  illustrating  and  simplifying  each  branch 
and  lesson,  and  only  the  teacher  who  understands  both  his  pro- 
fession and  the  character  of  his  pupils,  can  adapt  these  count- 
less varieties  of  method  to  the  endless  diversities  of  mind  and. 
character.  The  difficulty  of  understanding  little  children  is 
exceeded  only  by  its  importance.  The  internal  history  of  a. 
child  is  veiled  from  us,  because  it  no  longer  lies  within  the 
view  of  our  present  consciousness  and  experience.  In  our 
eagerness  to  "put  away  childish  things,"  we  too  soon  forget 
how  we  "  spake  as  a  child,"  "  understood  as  a  child,"  and 
"thought  as  a  child."  By  putting  himself  in  the  place  of  his. 
pupil,  and  becoming  literally  child-like,  renewing  his  youth, 
and  by  the  help  of  imagination  where  memory  fails,  reproduc- 
ing his  own  early  feelings,  impressions,  difficulties,  and  varying 
experience,  the  teacher  can  best  prepare  himself  to  appreciate 
the  instinctive  tendencies,  dangers,  weaknesses,  wants  and 
primal  aspirations  of  the  juvenile  mind  and  heart.  He  who 
can  thus  come  down  where  children  are, 'and  be  a  child  again,, 
instead  of  growing  old  in  heart  with  advancing  years,  will  ever 
maintain  that  rare  grace  and  beautiful  ornament  of  age,  the  ver- 
nal freshness  of  youthful  feeling.  Such  vivid  reminiscences  of 
childhood,  and  such  knowledge  of  the  juvenile  character,  bring 
the  teacher  into  close  contact  and  conscious  sympathy  with  his 
pupils,  open  their  hearts,  secure  their  conJSdence,  and  win  their 
love. 

The  man  who  retains  a  school  for  a  single  term  only  has  little- 
opportunity  or  motive  to  acquire  this  accurate  discernment  of 


104  CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

character,  this  sympathy  and  sensibility  to  penetrate  the  youth- 
ful spirit  and  arouse  its  dormant  faculties,  this  keen  and  prac- 
ticed eye  to  discern  what  motives  to  urge  upon  this  pupil,  what 
passions  to  repress  in  that,  what  habits  to  check  in  one,  what 
good  tendencies  to  foster  in  another,  what  weak  points  to 
strengthen  here,  and  what  peculiar  gifts  to  develop  there.  The 
teacher  must  thoroughly  understand  his  pupils  before  he  can 
discover,  in  each  particular  case,  the  best  methods  to  subdue 
the  obstinate,  to  stimulate  the  indolent,  to  arouse  the  stupid, 
to  make  the  careless  hunger  and  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  to 
win  the  confidence  and  affections  of  all.  Surely,  this  is  a  great 
work,  in  which  the  most  exalted  talents,  enriched  by  the  treas- 
ures of  science  and  experience^  will  find  ample  employment  for 
all  their  resources.  However  large  the  school,  the  teacher 
should  regard  an  intimate  knowledge  of  each  pupil  as  essential 
to  his  thorough  instruction.  This  knowledge  cannot  be  obtained 
intuitively,  nor  by  the  facile  process  of  phrenology.  It  is  the 
result  of  patient  and  long-continued  observation  of  individual 
children,  and  it  is  well  worth  all  the  labor  it  costs.  This  most 
valuable  acquisition  belongs  only  to  the  permanent  teacher.  It 
is  his  most  available  capital.  Some  days  usually  pass  before  a 
stranger  in  the  school-room  learns  the  names  and  former  classi- 
fication of  his  pupils.  Weeks  or  months  are  gone  before  he  is 
fully  prepared  to  judge  of  the  propriety  of  this  classification  ; 
and  then  so  little  time  of  his  short  term  remains  that  it  seems 
inexpedient  to  introduce  any  changes,  however  much  they  may 
\)Q  needed. 

How  different  is  the  position  of  the  permanent  teacher  on  re- 
opening his  school.  He  is  cordially  greeted,  and  welcomed  as  a 
friend  and  benefactor,  by  the  pupils,  whose  respect  and  love  he 
has  won.  He  knows  every  class  and  every  scholar.  On  the 
first  day  the  school  is  in  working  order.  The  teacher  and 
scholars  alike  enter  upon  the  new  term  without  any  abatement  of 
interest,  and  at  the  outset  he  is  able  to  suit  his  modes  of  instruc- 
tion to  the  character  and  standing  of  each  pupil.  The  teacher, 
for  the  time  being,  stands  in  the  place  of  the  parent.  And 
what  results  would  be  realized  in  the  family,  were  a  new  step 
father  or  step-mother  to  be  semi-annually  invested  with  parental 
authority  ?     The  picture  of  anarchy  and  alienation  which  this 


CULTURE  AND   KNOWLEDGE.  105 

question  suggests  need  not  here  be  drawn.  The  evil  is  hardly 
less  serious  in  the  school  than  it  would  be  in  the  household. 
What  would  be  the  effect  of  a  semi-annual  change  of  clerks  and 
book-keepers  in  our  mercantile  establishments,  or  of  agents  and 
overseers  in  our  manufactories,  or  of  financiers  in  our  banks,  or 
of  masters  of  our  merchantmen,  or  commanders  of  our  iron- 
clads, or  of  doctors  in  our  families,  or  of  pastors  in  our  parishes? 
Shrewd  men  never  made  such  blunders  in  business  matters,  al- 
though such  frequent  changes  would  be  less  disastrous  to  material 
enterprises  than  they  are  to  the  best  interests  of  schools.  Let 
us  not  practically  deny  the  value  of  experience  in  the  most  vital 
interests  committed  to  our  charge,  the  training  of  our  children. 
It  often  appears  to  be  the  chief  aim  of  our  transient  teachers, 
and  still  more  generally  of  parents,  to  secure  simply  a  rapid 
rehearsal  of  lessons  and  text-books,  as  if  the  repetition  of  the 
words  with  a  voluble  tongue  was  evidence  of  the  acquirement 
and  comprehension  of  the  thoughts.  But  it  is  doing  violence 
to  the  soul,  to  its  innate  love  of  truth,  and  of  growth  by  the 
nutriment  of  truth,  to  feed  it  thus  with  the  mere  husks  of 
knowledge,  rather  than  knowledge  itself.  Such  training  is 
quite  as  likely  to  make  pupils  flippant  as  fluent.  They  learn 
everything,  and  know  nothing.  They  pursue  too  many  studies 
at  a  time,  and  are  encouraged  to  enter  upon  advanced  studies 
before  they  understand  the  simple  rudiments.  They  forget 
that  true  progress  depends  less  on  the  number  of  branches  pur- 
sued, than  on  the  thoroughness  with  which  a  few  are  mastered. 
Undertaking  to  learn  too  much,  they  become  smatterers  in 
everything.  Their  acquirements  are  as  superficial  as  they  are 
extensive.  Their  knowledge  will  be  more  apt  to  make  them 
wordy  than  wise  ;  and, 

"  Words  are  like  leaves,  and  where  they  most  abound, 
Much  fruit  of  sense  is  rarely  found." 

They  seem  to  act  upon  the  principle  that  "  knowledge  is  power," 
but  not  in  the  sense  of  the  great  author  of  the  maxim,  who 
also  tells  us  that  "knowledge  is  the  concoction  of  reading  into 
judgment  r 

This  system  of  instruction  tends  to  inflate  pupils  with  an 
over-estimate  of  their  attainments,  and  such  conceit  as  an  ele- 
ment of  juvenile    character  obviously  has  other  tendencies,, 


106  CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

quite  as  pernicious  as  those  to  which  I  have  referred.  But  the 
appropriate  effect  of  trae  mental  discipline  and  the  highest  cul- 
ture is  not  self-admiration,  but  modesty,  since  the  first  lesson 
which  science  teaches  is  the  greatness  of  our  ignorance  and  the 
littleness  of  our  knowledge.  It  has  been  well  said,  "  the  greater 
the  circle  of  our  knowledge,  the  greater  the  horizon  of  ignor- 
ance that  bounds  it."  Those  who,  flushed  with  their  fancied 
achievements,  are  already  complacently  reposing  on  the  very 
pinnacle  of  science,  are  invited  to  spend  a  little  of  their  ample 
leisure  in  pondering  a  couplet  of  Cowper : 

"  Kjiowledge  is  proud  that  he  has  learned  so  much  ; 
Wisdom  is  humble  that  he  knows  no  more." 

In  plain  terms,  the  conceit  of  wisdom  is  in  inverse  ratio 
to  one's  attainments.  The  less  he  knows,  the  more  he  thinks 
he  knows.  To  the  embodiments  of  self-satisfaction  only,  "  a 
little  learning  is  a  dangerous  thing."  That  pupil  has  not  yet 
advanced  far,  who  has  not  learned  enough  to  know  that  his 
highest  acquisitions  are  yet  meagre  indeed.  The  truly  learned 
man  feels  that  his  knowledge  is  but  a  drop  out  of  the  bound- 
less ocean  of  truth.  Thus,  for  example,  Socrates  represented 
his  knowledge  as  nothing ;  Bishop  Butler  compared  his  to  a 
point ;  and  Newton  his  to  a  few  pebbles  which  a  child  picks 
up  on  the  shore. 

The  prevalent  evils  to  which  I  have  adverted,  are  the  natural 
results  of  an  erroneous  but  common  idea  as  to  the  primary 
objects  of  education.  This  error  is  fundamental.  It  would 
greatly  impair  the  best  system  of  instruction.  A  want  of 
agreement  and  of  concurrent  action  on  this  point  is  frequently 
the  occasion  of  serious  embarrassment,  even  to  the  best  teach- 
ers. The  most  judicious  instructors  are  particularly  liable  to 
incur  the  complaints  and  objections  of  parents,  because  their 
children  are  "put  back."  One  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to 
thoroughness,  and  one  which  the  most  successful  teachers  are 
continually  encountering,  is  found  in  the  impatience  of  pupils 
at  reviews,  encouraged  and  sustained  by  the  eagerness  of  par- 
ents to  have  them  get  through  the  text-books. 

It  should  therefore  be  a  familiar  maxim  in  all  common 
school  instructioii,  that  while  the  object  of  education  is  always 
two-fold,  discipline  of  the  mind  is  more  important  than  storing 


CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE.  107 

it  with  facts.  However  valuable  these  may  be,  they  should  be 
learned,  not  primarily^  for  their  own  sake,  but  as  instruments 
for  forming  right  mental  habits.  All  the  teacher's  plans  and 
methods  of  instruction  should  be  modified  by  the  paramount 
consideration  that  the  prescribed  studies  are  to  be  pursued,  not 
as  ends,  so  much  as  means,  to  the  higher  end  of  disciplining 
and  developing  the  mental  powers.  Knowledge  is  indeed 
essential  to  education,  but,  as  we  have  already  shown,  does 
not  constitute  it.  If  right  habits  of  mental  activity  and  self- 
reliance  are  formed,  knowledge  will  come  in  due  time,  as  a 
matter  of  course;  and  any  degree  of  knowledge,  without  men- 
tal discipline,  will  be  of  little  use.  The  process  of  pure  "  cram  " 
attains  little  genuine  knowledge  and  retains  less,  while  the  true 
method  of  study  gains  the  richest  acquisitions  and  has  them 
ever  at  command.  It  is  the  discipline  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  faculties  that  constitutes  the  man,  and  gives  him  his 
individual  character  and  power.  It  is  by  means  of  this  dis- 
cipline that  he  will  be  able  to  excel  in  any  pursuit  or  pro- 
fession. 

Now  the  object  of  the  Common  School  is  not  to  finish  the 
education,  but  to  lay  the  foundation  for  future  and  higher 
attainments ;  to  teach  the  pupil  how  to  study,  and  to  inspire 
him  with  a  love  of  learning.  If  this  be  done,  he  will,  for  the  rest, 
educate  himself  He  will  feel  that  his  education  is  only  begun, 
when  his  school  days  are  ended.  To  complete  it  will  be  the 
aim  and  pleasure  of  his  life.  Place  him  where  you  will,  let  his 
calling  be  what  it  may,  he  will  find  leisure  for  study,  and  will 
feel  an  insatiable  desire  for  self -improvement.  The  child  can 
ordinarily  be  so  trained  that  he  will  be  a  scholar  through  life, 
and  occupy  the  intervals  of  labor  or  business  engagements  in 
the  cherished  work  of  mental  improvement  This  great  end  of 
study  should  determine  the  methods  of  instruction.  Such  dis- 
cipline is  not  to  be  gained  by  learning  a  few  text-books  by  rote, 
nor  by  any  degree  of  skill  in  mnemonics.  It  is  the  result  of 
mental  discipline,  secured  by  close  application  and  the  thorough 
understanding  of  every  branch  pursued. 

From  what  has  been  said,  it  is  obvious  that  it  is  the  teacher's 
chief  business  to  see,  not  how  much  he  can  get  into  the  heads 
of  his  pupils,  but  how  much  he  can  get  out  of  them.     Draw- 


108  CULTURE   AND   KNOWLEDGE. 

ing  out  is,  in  the  end,  the  best  way  to  put  in.  The  culture  of 
the  mind  is  to  be  measured  not  by  what  it  contains,  but  by 
what  it  can  do.  Efficiency  is  the  proper  test  of  mental  im- 
provement. Hence  the  teacher  should  make  every  effort  to 
awaken  and  sustain  a  spirit  of  self-reliance.  He  should  throw 
the  pupil  upon  his  own  resources,  and  make  him  feel  that  he 
must  train  himself  by  his  own  efforts.  In  reference  to  educa- 
tion it  is  pre-eminently  true,  that  "  every  one  is  the  architect 
of  his  own  fortune."  In  the  breast  of  each  pupil  are  the  germs 
of  those  plastic  faculties,  which  he  can  mould  and  shape  as  he 
will,  and  which,  if  rightly  trained,  will  secure  his  usefulness 
and  happiness.  They  are  always  the  best  taught  who  in  the 
highest  sense  of  the  term  are  self-taught,  who  make  use  of  the 
lessons  of  their  teachers,  chiefly  as  guides  in  the  work  of  self- 
training.  The  best  scholars  in  our  schools  are  those  who  lean 
least  upon  their  instructors,  and  rely  most  upon  themselves. 

It  is  the  teacher's  office  not  so  much  to  impart  knowledge  as 
to  show  his  pupils  how  to  get  it ;  to  give  a  strong  impulse  to 
their  minds,  and  lead  them,  in  conscious  self-reliance,  to  put 
forth  their  utmost  energies.  He  will  thus  inspire  them  with  a 
love  of  study  and  delight  in  mastering  diflSculties,  till  they  feel 
all  the  incitements  of  victors,  and  are  encouraged  to  go  on  from 
conquest  to  conquest. 

To  train  a  school  to  such  habits  of  study,  is  no  easy  task. 
Under  the  most  favorable  circumstances,  it  will  involve  great 
difficulty  and  demand  persevering  effort.  The  accomplish- 
ment of  this  one  result  is  the  greatest  achievement  of  the  suc- 
cessful teacher.  It  is  the  cardinal  secret  of  a  good  education. 
These  principles,  should  guide  committees  and  boards  of  educa- 
tion in  the  selection  of  teachers ;  a'nd  any  one  who,  on  trial,  is 
found  to  lack  this  important  faculty,  however  excellent  in 
other  respects,  and  however  popular  in  the  district,  is  not  equal 
to  the  responsible  task  assumed.  It  is  a  radical  defect,  for 
which  no  degree  of  literary  attainments  or  suavit}^  of  manners 
can  compensate. 

Boys  or  girls  educated  on  the  system  advocated  above  can 
hardly  fail  of  success,  when  they  pursue,  in  a  like  spirit,  their 
appropriate  callings  in  life.  They  will  have  clear  ideas,  and 
know  what  they  are  talking  about  when  they  speak  at  all.     If 


CULTUKE   AND   KNOWLEDGE.  109 

they  undertake  to  write,  they  will  be  capable  of  concentrating 
their  powers  upon  a  given  subject,  and  will  write  sensibly,  and 
to  the  point.  If  they  are  called,  in  the  business  of  life,  to 
decide  in  some  novel  emergency,  they  will  think  accurately, 
and  decide  promptly,  for  a  thoroughly  disciplined  mind  will 
always  furnish  a  clue  for  the  solution  of  the  problem.  Such  a 
mind,  even  when  overtaken  by  a  perplexing  combination  of  cir- 
cumstances, will  not  resolve  on  one  thing  to-day,  and  to-mor- 
row the  opposite ;  nor  begin  to  doubt  and  waver  as  soon  as  any 
thing  positive  has  been  determined  upon.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
recognize  such  a  person  as  well  in  a  brief  conversation  as  in 
the  whole  course  of  life.  He  is  distinguishable,  at  a  glance, 
from  those  who  are  forever  lingering  among  unexecuted  reso- 
lutions and  abandoned  projects,  always  making  up  their 
minds,  but  never  reaching  a  fixed  and  an  abiding  conclusion. 
Those  who  are  alternately  drawn  in  opposite  directions  soon 
find  their  efforts  frustrating  one  another,  and  come  to  feel  de- 
meaned in  their  own  eyes.  Conscious  that  they  are  powerless, 
they  have  neither  the  heart  to  attempt  nor  the  force  to  accom- 
plish anything.  Such  instances  of  fickleness  are  not  rare.  It 
is  a  tendency  against  which  our  youth  need  to  be  guarded  with 
special  care.  The  erroneous  theory  of  education  under  con- 
sideration directly  fosters  fickleness,  while  thorough  mental  dis- 
cipline imparts  unity  and  force  to  the  character.  Without  such 
discipline,  a  man  will  not  think  for  himself,  he  will  waver  and 
hesitate,  now  almost  persuaded,  and  soon  not  persuaded  at 
all.  He  will  have  neither  accurate  discrimination  nor  sound 
judgment;  he  may  be  very  learned  in  appearance,  but  never 
strong,  self-relying  and  original. 


THE   PEOFESSIONAL  STUDY. 

Among  the  practical  studies  for  teachers,  Mental  Philosophy 
is  foremost.  Teaching  never  can  and  never  ought  to  rise  to 
the  dignity  of  a  profession  with  those  who  do  not  practically 
recognize  this  science  as  its  foundation.  Its  relation  to  Didac- 
tics has  not  been  duly  appreciated,  and  as  a  natural  result,  it 
has  received  too  little  attention  in  the  training  of  teachers.  Its 
advantages  may  not  merely  be  inferred  from  the  intrinsic 
interest  and  dignity  of  the  science.  It  has  special  adaptations 
to  the  wants  and  daily  work  of  the  teacher. 

This  study  will  he  of  preeminent  service  to  the  teacher  in  his  own 
mental  discipline.  Just  views  of  the  powers,  capacities,  and 
laws  of  the  mind  are  obviously  conducive  to  self  culture,  for 
they  reveal  the  conditions  of  its  growth .  Philosophy  is  as  old 
as  the  race,  and  is  a  necessity  of  man.  Every  thinker  will 
have  some  philosophy.  Certainly  the  teacher  should  have  a 
definite  system,  for  his  philosophy,  whatever  it  may  be,  will 
mould  his  plans  for  self-improvement,  and  shape  his  efforts 
for  the  training  of  others.  He  must  cease  to  think,  if  he 
abjure  all  philosophy.  As  he  will  hold  and  consciously  or 
unconsciously  apply  some  theories  of  mind  and  its  culture,  it 
is  a  question  of  paramount  interest  whether  these  principles  are 
true  or  false,  partial  or  systematic,  mastered  as  a  science,  by 
the  study  of  the  book  and  the  living  subject,  or  picked  up 
incidentally,  intelligently  and  persistently  applied  to  a  well 
chosen  end,  or  casually  and  unconsciously  employed,  without 
reference  to  a  definite  result.  That  is  most  valuable  in  education 
which  sets  the  mind  to  the  most  intense  activity.  No  science 
is  better  adapted  to  sharpen,  energize,  and  expand  the  mind, 
and  form  habits  of  attention,  discrimination,  and  reflection. 
The  study  of  its  great  principles,  comprehending  the  sublimest 
subjects  of  human  thought,  is  fitted  to  awaken  a  love  of  truth, 
of  investigation  and  discovery,  and  to  free  the  mind  from  the 
thralldom  of  trivialities. 


THE   PKOFESSIONAL   STUDY.  Ill 

Mental  Philosophy  is  of  interest  to  teachers^  as  one  of  the  appro- 
priate school  studies.  The  common  explanation  of  its  neglect  in 
the  preparatory  course  of  teachers  is  the  fact  that  they  are  not 
required  to  give  instruction  in  this  department.  But  it  will  be 
found  a  most  useful  study  for  advanced  classes  in  our  high 
schools  and  academies,  and  many  of  its  leading  principles  can 
be  profitably  taught  in  familiar  oral  lessons  to  those  who  have 
not  sufficient  time  or  maturity  to  pursue  the  science.  An 
important  result  is  gained  if  pupils  are  thus  led  early  to  watch 
the  operations  of  their  own  minds  and  to  adopt  the  best  meth- 
ods of  cultivating  the  Perceptive  and  Representative  Powers, 
and  of  gaining  the  command  of  the  faculties  and  the  discipline  of 
the  will.  Skillful  instruction  will  initiate  processes  of  observa- 
tion and  thought  which  the  child  will  himself  delight  to  repeat, 
and  by  repetition,  they  will  become  the  fixed  and  controlling 
habits  and  vitalizing  forces  of  the  mind. 

A  true  understanding  of  the  relation  of  Psychology  to  Teaching 
luould  greatly  modify,  if  not  revolutionize,  our  systems  and  processes 
of  instruction.  Mental  philosophy  underlies  the  whole  work  of 
education,  which  can  claim  the  dignity  of  a  science  only  as  it 
rests  on  this  broad  basis.  Among  the  many  practical  questions 
which  this  subject  suggests  to  the  teacher,  are  theifollowing : 

1.  What  is  the  great  end  of  intellectual  education,  to  which 
all  processes  should  be  strictly  subordinate  and  subservient  ? 
In  the  chapter  on  Culture  and  Knowledge  I  have  aimed  to 
show  that  this  is  a  question  of  paramount  importance.  Cor- 
I'ect  views  on  this  point  will  modify  and  determine  all  the 
teacher's  plans  and  methods.  A  mistake  here  would  be  funda- 
mental, and  would  greatly  impair  any  system  of  education, 
however  complete  in  other  particulars. 

2.  W*hat  are  the  faculties  of  the  human  mind  which  are  to 
be  e'ducated?  The  teacher  too  often  assumes  the  sacred 
responsibilities  of  his  profession  without  a  definite  outline  of 
his  work.  Although  it  is  his  great  business  to  operate  upon 
mind,  he  has  not  yet  considered  the  number  and  nature  of  the 
intellectual  powers,  and  the  implements  which  he  is  to  employ 
in  all  study  and  science.  The  physician  must  understand  the 
organs  and  structure  of  the  body,  the  conditions  of  growth,  the 
laws  of  health,  the  causes  and  preventions  as  well  as  the  reme- 


112  MENTAL   PHIIiOSOPHY. 

dies  of  disease.  The  law  demands  this  knowledge  as  essential 
to  the  medical  practitioner.  Does  not  the  training  of  the  mind 
equally  require  the  study  of  its  faculties  and  their  laws  of  devel- 
opment? May  the  culture  of  the  mind — far  more  subtle  and 
important  than  the  body — be  safely  entrusted  to  those  who  are 
ignorant  of  its  nature  ?  Useful  in  any  profession,  this  knowl- 
edge is  essential  to  the  true  teacher  who  lives  and  moves  and 
has  his  being  in  the  sphere  of  mind,  and  whose  constant  duty 
is  to  mould  and  develop  it. 

8.  What  is  the  order,  as  to  time,  in  which  these  faculties  are 
to  be  addressed  and  developed  ?  This  question,  though  seldom 
raised,  is  most  important  and  practical.  When  properly  an- 
swered, it  will  effect  radical  changes,  especially  in  primary 
schools,  and  suggest  numerous  and  useful  methods  of  interest- 
ing the  smallest  children.  The  inquiry  so  frequently  made, 
"  How  can  I  keep  these  little  ones  out  of  mischief?"  receives 
only  a  partial  answer  in  the  common  direction  : — "  Give  them 
something  to  do."  It  should  rather  be  the  study  of  the  teacher 
to  find  occupations  adapted  to  their  years  and  tastes,  accordant 
with  the  natural  law  of  development,  and  fitted  to  improve  as 
well  as  please.  Such,  for  example,  are  frequent  general  exer- 
cises, object-lessons,  exercises  in  drawing,  and  the  innumerable 
expedients  well  suited  to  interest  children,  and  at  the  same 
time  to  train  the  senses  and  cultivate  observation. 

4.  What  exercises  are  required  for  the  healthful  training  of 
each  faculty  ?  What  processes  and  directions  will  be  most 
conducive  to  habits  of  attention,  analysis,  and  classification, 
and  to  the  improvement  of  the  Perceptive  and  Eepresentative 
faculties  ?  These,  and  many  similar  questions  of  equal  interest, 
belong  to  the  department  of  Mental  Philosoph3^ 

5.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  several  school  studies  to  the 
different  faculties  of  the  mind?  Each  subject  of  study  has 
some  special  adaptations  to  particular  necessities  of  the  juve- 
nile mind.  The  teacher  who  has  duly  pondered  this  question 
will  no  longer  employ  any  text-book  or  science  as  an  end,  but 
only  as  a  means  to  the  higher  and  more  important  end  of  dis- 
ciplining some  particular  faculty  or  faculties  of  the  mind.  A 
text-book  designed  to  train  the  reasoning  powers  will  be  more 
likely  to  accomplish  its  object  when  that  paramount  end  and 


THE   PROFESSIONAL   STUDY.  113 

the  adaptation  of  the  means  are  both  distinctly  before  the  mind. 
When  Geography  is  employed  primarily  as  an  instrument  of 
cultivating  observation,  conception  and  memory,  the  lessons 
illustrated  on  the  globes,  and  the  maps  mastered  hy  mahing  them 
from  memory^  will  remain  vividly  daguerreotyped  on  the  retina 
in  their  exact  forms,  relations,  and  proportions ;  and,  what  is 
still  better,  as  the  result  of  this  intelligent  training  for  a  specific 
end,  the  process  can  be  repeated  at  will,  in  reference  to  any 
objects  of  perception  and  description  ;  and  thus  the  child  gains 
a  new  and  invaluable  power,  which  enters  into  all  the  graver 
operations  of  the  mind,  in  natural  science,  history,  poetry,  and 
the  fine  arts. 

6.  What  is  the  proper  arrangement  and  succession  of 
studies  ? ' 

My  present  purpose  and  space  forbid  the  attempt  to  answer 
these  questions.  They  all  grow  out  of  the  philosophy  of  the 
mind,  and  are  now  presented  to  indicate  its  practical  bearings. 

Psychology  will  aid  the  teacher  in  understanding  himself. — 
''What  of  all  things  is  best?"  asked  Chilon  of  the  Oracle. 
"  To  know  thyself,"  was  the  memorable  reply.  "  To  know 
one's  self,"  reiterated  the  sages  of  Greece,  "  is  the  hardest  and 
yet  the  most  important  discovery  of  man.''  "  Man,  know  thy- 
self; all  wisdom  centres  there,"  says  a  philosophic  poet  of 
modern  times.  And  no  words  of  Burns  have  met  a  more  gen- 
eral response  from  the  world  than  the  familiar  couplet : 
"  Oh,  wad  some  Power  the  giftie  gie  us, 
To  see  oursels  as  others  see  us." 

To  attain  this  knowledge  of  ourselves,  the  importance  of 
which  has  been  thus  universally  conceded  in  every  age,  we 
must  give  heed  to  the  testimony  of  consciousness.  Mental 
Philosophy  is  properly  called  the  science  of  self-reflection,  and 
its  facts  are  chiefly  those  which  lie  under  the  eye  of  conscious- 
ness. Without  the  habit  of  introversion  we  can  know  little  of 
ourselves  ;  with  it  we  may  find  the  noblest  themes  of  study  in 
the  wonderful  mechanism  and  movements  of  our  own  minds, 
and  in  the  deepest  solitudes  verify  the  aphorism  of  Swift,  "A 
wise  man  is  never  less  alone  than  when  alone,"  or  the  words  of 
Novalis,  "  A  certain  degree  of  solitude  seems  necessary  to  the 
full  growth  and  spread  of  the  highest  mind,  and  therefore  con- 


114  MENTAL   PHILOSOPHY. 

stant  intercourse  with  men  will  stifle  many  a  holy  germ,  and 
scare  away  the  gods,  who  shun  the  restless  tumult  of  merry 
companions  and  the  discussion  of  petty  interests." 

Thvi  self-knowledge  will  aid  the  teacher  in  self-control.  The  first 
requisite  in  the  government  of  others,  and  especially  of  chil- 
dren, is  the  command  of  one's  self  Self-possession  fosters 
discretion,  decision  and  firmness,  which  are  the  essential  ele- 
ments of  administrative  talent.  The  most  disastrous  conse- 
quences in  the  school-room  frequently  result  from  the  loss  of 
self-command.  Here  the  teacher,  liable  to  sudden  contingen- 
cies and  numberless  annoyances  and  provocations,  is  peculiarly 
exposed.  At  this  point  of  ever-imminent  danger  should  the 
trusty  sentinel — "self-command" — guard  with  sleepless  vigi- 
lance. To  secure  this  end,  the  teacher  must  know  himself ; 
especially  must  his  consciousness  mirror  to  him  his  weah  points^ 
his  tendencies  to  haste,  excitement  or  passion. 

The  teacher  will  he  compensated  for  the  study  of  Menial  Philoso- 
phy^ by  his  tendency  to  exalt  his  estimate  of  mind,  its  wonder- 
ful nature  and  priceless  worth,  its  illimitable  capacities  of 
culture,  its  glory  as  created  in  the  image  of  God,  its  oppor- 
tunity of  still  higher  glory  in  literally  becoming  a,  partaker 
of  the  Divine  Nature,  its  power  of  endless  progression  in 
knowledge  and  felicity,  and  the  consequent  sacredness  of  the 
teacher's  daily  work. 

All  natural  science  is  a  production  of  the  human  mind,  and 
hence  a  striking  proof  of  its  greatness  and  glory ;  but  no 
other  science  so  highly  exalts  man,  no  other  can  so  fill  and 
satisfy  the  soul,  and  rise  evermore  above  its  soaring  thoughts, 
no  other  justify  the  ancient  maxim, — "On  earth  there  is  noth- 
ing great  but  man,  in  man  there  is  nothing  great  but  mind." 
Such  a  clear  consciousness  of  the  lofty  powers  which  God  has 
implanted  in  the  human  soul,  their  laws  and  capacities  of 
illimitable  expansion,  will  be  a  powerful  incentive  to  their 
earnest  culture. 

But  while  philosophy  thus  exalts  mind,  it  humbles  the  man. 
It  rebukes  conceit  without  impairing  self-reliance,  and  by  the 
electric  affinity  of  thoroughness  and  humility  forms  the  best 
antidote  to  the  prevailing  sciolism  and  charlatanry  of  the  day, 
— ever  re-affirming  the  classic  aphorism,  "  Qui  nescit  ignorare, 


THE   PROFESSIONAL   STUDY.  115 

ignorat  scire," — "  whoever  knows  not  that  he  is  ignorant,  is 
not  sure  that  he  knows."  We  here  find  the  true  limitation  of 
human  science — the  greatness  of  our  ignorance,  and  the  little- 
ness of  our  knowledge.  The  history  of  all  genuine  scholars 
confirms  the  lesson  of  philosophy, — "  That  the  pride  of  wis- 
dom is  proof  of  folly." 

"  For  the  pride  of  man  in  what  he  knows 
Keeps  lessening  as  his  knowledge  grows." 

As  this  sense  of  ignorance  is  the  first  step  towards  knowl- 
edge and  a  constant  stimulus  to  higher  attainments,  so,  on  the 
other  hand,  conceit  of  wisdom  enervates  the  mind  and  lessens 
the  incentives  to  studiousness.  Arrogance  and  assurance  bear 
no  semblance  to  the  fruits  of  true  learning  and  self-reliance. 
Yet,  from  the  days  of  Johnson,  "  the  school-master  "  has  been 
characterized  in  our  literature  as  magisterial,  opinionated  and 
dogmatical,  and  sometimes,  it  must  be  admitted,  not  without 
reason.  With  all  his  need  of  high  culture,  the  business  of 
the  teacher  does  not  enforce  the  tension  of  every  nerve  in  the 
grapple  of  mind  with  mind,  as  in  forensic  contests.  Asso- 
ciated, as  teachers  habitually  are,  with  beginners,  or  at  least 
inferiors  in  attainments,  separated  in  their  professional  work 
from  equals  and  superiors,  there  is  danger  of  imbibing  the 
spirit  of  conceit,  if  not  of  assuming  an  air  of  dogmatism. 
What  is  dryer  than  an  old,  opinionated,  self-satisfied,  unpro- 
gressive  school-master.  He  despises  "all  your  new-fangled 
notions."  He  glories  in  the  good  old  ways.  He  has  a  glib 
tongue  indeed,  but  its  monotony  is  as  vapid  as  it  is  fluent. 
His  flippant  routine  feeds  his  complacency,  while  it  really 
enervates  his  own  mind,  and  stupefies  his  pupils.  Dryasdust 
still  lives.  Whoever,  either  in  the  college  or  primary  school, 
has  ceased  to  learn,  should  by  all  means  stop  teaching.  Chil- 
dren need  impulse,  even  more  than  instruction.  Any  one  who 
no  longer  thirsts  for  higher  knowledge,  cannot  fitly  lead  the 
youngest  to  its  fountain.  As  a  teacher,  one  must  be  progres- 
sive, or  cease  to  be  at  all.  The  mind  that  stagnates  will  soon 
retrograde.  Such  a  teacher  would  serve  to  stultify  rather  than 
stimulate  his  class.  But,  there  are  teachers  worthy  of  their 
work,  whose  ideal  is  high,  and  who  are  enthusiastic  in  the  life- 
long work  of  personal  culture. 


116  MENTAL   PHILOSOPHY. 

A  knoiuledge  of  mental  philosophy  will  aid  the  teacher  in  school 
government  This  is  confessedly  tlie  most  difficult  part  of  bis 
work.  Even  of  the  graduates  of  the  Normal  School  it  is  said, 
"  The  most  general  as  well  as  the  greatest  complaint  is  inabil- 
ity to  govern."  But  so  far  from  being  peculiar  to  the  Normal 
graduates,  this  is  everywhere,  and  among  all  classes  of  teachers, 
the  most  common  source  of  failure.  An  extensive  observation 
of  schools  of  all  grades,  and  consultations  and  correspondence 
with  parents,  and  committees,  in  all  parts  of  the  country, 
seem  to  me,  after  making  due  allowance  for  acknowledged 
instances  of  failure,  to  establish  the  conclusion  that  the  grad- 
uates of  Normal  Schools  have  secured  more  than  an  average 
degree  of  success  in  government  as  well  as  in  instruction. 
This  superiority  is  often  manifested  in  improved  methods  of 
influence  and  discipline, — a  matter  of  the  utmost  consequence, 
though  too  little  noticed  by  parents  and  committees.  The 
value  of  any  given  result  in  school  government  depends  very 
much  upon  the  jnotives  which  produced  it.  I  have  seen  pupils 
benumbed  with  fear  and  still  as  the  grave,  and  heard  their 
teacher — whose  only  rule  was  a  reign  of  terror — lauded  by 
the  visitors  as  a  model  disciplinarian.  The  stillest  school  is 
not  always  the  most  studious.  Pupils  may  be  controlled  for 
a  time  by  motives  which  will  ultimately  debase  the  character 
and  enfeeble  the  will,  or  they  may  be  stimulated  to  the  highest 
effort  by  incentives  which  will  be  healthful  and  permanent  in 
their  influence  upon  the  mind  and  heart. 

School  government  is  a  difficult  subject  to  teach  by  any  gen- 
eral rules,  and  yet  its  intrinsic  importance  assigns  to  it  the  first 
place  among  the  preparatory  studies  of  the  teacher.  It  is  based 
on  a  thorough  and  practical  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  mind, 
of  influence,  and  motive,  the  philosophy  of  the  sensibilities 
and  the  will. 

Sagacity  in  the  discernment  of  character  is  one  of  the  secrets 
of  success  both  in  the  government  and  instruction  of  children. 
The  surest  way  to  know  others  is  first  to  know  ourselves ;  and 
if  we  would  understand  the  juvenile  mind — an  attainment  as 
rare  as  it  is  important — we  must  ourselves  be  children  again, 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  recall  our  earliest  feelings,  passions, 
motives,  prejudices,  and  all  our  mental  processes.     He  who 


THE   PROFESSIONAL   STUDY.  117 

thus  reads  himself  will  readily  read  others,  while  ignorance 
of  one's  self  presupposes  and  necessitates  a  misjudgment  of 
men.  An  intimate  knowledge  of  our  pupils, — their  charac- 
teristic traits  of  mind  and  heart,  their  good  qualities,  and  still 
more,  their  evil  tendencies  and  inclinations,  will  facilitate  the 
adaptation  of  motives  to  their  individual  necessities. 

"I  will  try  to  get  on  the  right  side  of  him,"  said  an  eminent 
teacher  in  regard  to  a  turbulent  boy,  whom  the  School  Officers 
had  determined  to  expel  as  a  "  hopeless  case,"  but  the  teacher's 
skill  and  kindness  transformed  that  reckless  lad  into  an  affec- 
tionate and  diligent  pupil,  who  in  later  years,  when  raised  to 
high  eminence  as  a  staternan,*  still  gratefully  and  repeatedly 
acknowledged  his  indebtedness  for  success  to  the  patience  and 
discrimination  of  General  Salem  Towne,  his  early  teacher. 

There  is  a  "  right  side  "  to  the  roughest  character.  Let  the 
teacher  find  it,  and  adapt  the  requisite  influences  to  his  actual 
wants,  instead  of  abandoning  the  wayward  youth  in  despair. 

The  philosophy  of  motive  is  of  great  practical  importance. 
Here  the  teacher  should  not  practice  empirically.  The  train- 
ing of  the  mind  and  heart  involves  too  sacred  interests  to  be 
hazarded  in  trying  a  series  of  experiments.  Such,  however,  is 
the  common  process  when  the  teacher  enters  upon  his  work 
with  no  matured  system  of  influences.  He  should  have  the 
whole  arsenal  of  motive  at  command.  His  success  will  depend 
upon  the  number  of  these  implements  he  can  wield,  upon  his 
judgment  in  their  selection,  and  his  skill  in  their  use.  He  is 
sure  to  excel  as  a  disciplinarian  who  can  felicitously  adapt  the 
countless  varieties  of  motive  to  all  diversities  of  character.  To 
be  able  to  do  this  most  happily,  the  teacher  must  understand 
the  philosophy  of  the  sensibilities.  He  must  know  what  are 
the  emotions  which  he  can  awaken,  and  what  are  the  natural 
desires  and  affections  which  God  has  implanted  as  the  impel- 
ling forces  in  the  human  soul.  I  will  not  now  discuss,  or  even 
enumerate  them.  They  are  the  springs  of  all  action,  and  to 
them  all  motives  must  be  addressed.  The  best  clue  to  the 
discernment  of  the  ever-varying  phases  of  human  nature  is  a 
practical  knowledge  of  those  causes  which  control  and  those 
traits  which  constitute  individual  character. 

*  Hon.  William  L.  Marcy. 
8 


118  MENTAL   PHILOSOPHr. 

While  all  admit  the  importance  of  a  knowledge  of  liuman 
nature,  and  are  ever  ready  to  say  with  Pope,  that 
'•  The  proper  study  of  mankind  is  man," 

it  is  objected  tliat  the  only  true  mode  of  studying  human  nature 
is  not  from  books,  but  from  the  living  subject  in  the  daily  inter- 
course and  transactions  of  life,  and  it  is  true  that  our  first  ideas 
of  rhind  and  of  those  elemental  principles  of  which  all  men 
learn  more  or  less,  are  thus  acquired.  Mental  Philosophy,  or 
anything  else,  learned  from  books  alone,  will  be  of  very  little 
use.  This  knowledge  becomes  practical  only  when  it  is  veri- 
fied in  our  own  consciousness,  and  tested  by  our  observation 
and  experience.  The  close  and  constant  observation  of  men, 
the  habit  of  analyzing  character  and  watching  the  play  of  the 
different  faculties  and  the  manifestation  of  individual  traits  of 
mind  and  heart,  tracing  actions  to  their  motives,  giving  always 
the  first  and  severest  scrutiny  to  our  own  motives  and  menial 
operations,  are  the  most  direct,  safe  and  certain  methods  of  study- 
ing Mental  Philosophy.  The  mere  knowledge  of  philosophical 
systems  and  nomenclature  can  give  only  the  shell  without  the 
substance.  The  man  who  studies  mind  from  books  alone  will 
know  less  of  genuine  human  nature  than  the  unlettered,  but 
eagle-eyed,  observer  of  men  and  things.  Text-books  and  sys- 
tems serve  a  most  important  purpose,  but  can  furnish  no  sub- 
stitute for  observation  and  reflection.  The  text-book  is,  how- 
ever, as  useful  in  Mental  Philosophy  as  in  the  Natural  Sciences. 
All  men  have  the  opportunity  of  studying  nature.  Minerals, 
animals  and  plants  are  the  most  familiar  objects  which  have 
surrounded  us  from  childhood.  But  his  knowledge  of  Mineral- 
ogy, Natural  History,  or  Botany  is  most  thorough  and  scientific 
who  diligently  employs  the  best  productions  of  others  to  aid 
his  own  observation  and  reflection.  Practical  sagacity  in  the 
conduct  of  affairs  and  the  control  of  men  can  usually  be  traced 
to  the  union  of  science  and  observation.  The  one  unfolds  great 
universal  principles  and  invests  them  with  interest,  dignity 
and  power ;  the  other  confirms  them  by  the  rigid  test  of  exper- 
ience, and  facilitates  their  application  in  personal  influence  or 
persuasion. 

The  importance  of  Mental  Philosophy  has  not  been  generally 
admitted  by  teachers.     The  brilliant  discoveries  in  the  Natural 


THE   PROFESSIONAL  STUDY.  119 

Sciences,  and  their  manifold  applications  to  practical  purposes, 
have  elicited  universal  admiration.  As  Psychology  does  not 
display  immediate  and  palpable  results  to  the  casual  observer, 
it  is  often  disparaged,  and  pronounced  devoid  of  practical 
utility.  But  its  importance — like  the  foundations  of  an  edifice 
— is  none  the  less  real  because  less  observed.  With  earnest 
and  thoughful  minds  in  every  age  of  the  world  its  imperial 
sway  has  been  freely  acknowledged,  and  only  less  absolute  has 
been  its  authority  when  men  have  failed  to  recognize  the 
source  of  the  principles  which  form  popular  sentiment  and  con- 
trol public  affairs.  Each  historic  period  reflects  certain  great 
philosophic  ideas,  which  now  color  and  characterize  the  picture 
of  the  historian,  simply  because  they  once  were  the  formative 
elements  in  the  original.  Hence,  History  has  been  fitly  styled 
"  Philosophy  teaching  by  examples,"  and  its  highest  use  and 
value  may  be  found  in  the  lessons  of  human  nature  which  it 
furnishes.  And  when,  instead  of  a  dry  record  of  events  in 
chronological  order,  it  investigates  the  causes  and  consequences 
of  the  successive  changes  and  conditions  of  society,  it  becomes 
worthy  of  the  name  of  the  "  Philosophy  of  History.'' 

Mental  Philosophy  is  only  another  name  for  a  thorough  and 
scientific  knowledge  of  human  nature.  It  deals- with  those  first 
principles  which  are  the  foundation  of  all  knowledge  and  phi- 
losophy, literature  and  theology.  Infidelity  itself  is  ever  trace- 
able to  some  false  philosophy.  "  All  Sciences,"  says  Hume,, 
"have  a  relation  to  human  nature,  and,  however  wide  they  may 
seem  to  roam  from  it,  they  still  return  back  by  one  passage  or 
another ;  this  is  the  center  and  capitol  of  the  Sciences,  which 
being  once  master  of,  we  may  easily  extend  our  conquests 
everywhere."  And  says  Sir  William  Hamilton,  "  There  is  no 
branch  of  Philosophy  which  does  not  suppose  Psychology  as 
its  preliminary,  which  does  not  borrow  from  this  as  its  light. 
It  supplies  either  the  materials  or  the  rules  to  all  the  Sciences." 

So  far  as  our  teachers  are  induced  to  pursue  this  subject,  our 
schools  will  be  elevated.     The  study  should  indeed  be  mastered 
in  the  Normal  School.     But  I  commend  the  subject  to  those  in 
actual  service,   whose   "school  days"  are  ended,  but  who,  if' 
worthy  to  teach,  feel  that  their  education  is  just  begun. 


STUDY  AND  HEALTH. 

Alarmists  have  written  eloquently  on  "the  Slaughter  of  the 
Innocents"  in  school  by  over  study,  alleging  that  severe  appli- 
cation is  impairing  the  health  of  multitudes,  and  that  the 
study  hours  should  be  reduced  to  five,  four,  and,  as  some^ 
strenuously  contend,  three  hours  a  day.  If  "  The  Slaughter 
of  the  Innocents"  in  school  be  not  a  "Yankee  Notion,"  it 
is  at  least  one  little  known  in  Europe.  The  German  boys 
and  English  girls  study  more  hours  than  our  youth,  and  yet 
have  better  health.  In  Europe  young  and  old  are  out  more  in 
the  open  air.  The  bloom  and  vigor  of  English  women  is  due 
largely  to  their  freer  and  fuller  exercise  in  the  street,  the  park, 
the  forest  and  the  field.  The  physical  education  of  children  is 
everywhere  encouraged  if  not  enforced.  Out-door  recreation 
is  systematized.  Besides  the  daily  walks,  fi-equent  excursions 
into  the  country  and  appropriate  plays  are  provided,  for  girls 
as  well  as  boys.  The  American  girl  is  not  a  match  for  her 
English  cousins  in  these  pedestrian  excursions.  We  have  yet 
to  learn  that  air  and  exercise  are  as  essential  to  health  as  food 
and  sleep.  The  single  habit  of  late  hours  harms  our  children 
more  than  hard  study.  The  example  of  Germany  is  well 
worthy  of  imitation.  Early  hours  are  there  the  rule,  early  to 
!School  (at  seven  in  summer  and  eight  in  winter)  and  early  to 
bed.  Even  the  opera,  concert  and  theater  begin  at  six  or 
seven  o'clock  and  close  at  nine  or  ten. 

It  is  a  common  but  mistaken  impression  that  study  is  unfav- 
orable to  health.  That  the  laws  of  hygiene  are  sadly  neglected 
and  that  ignorance  of  physiology  breeds  serious  mischief  is  no 
doubt  true.  There  are  also  exceptional  cases  of  children  who 
are  constitutionally  too  frail  or  nervous  to  bear  the  stimulus  or 
tasks  of  school.  But  wide  observation  confirms  the  conclu- 
sion that,  as  a  rule,  our  schools  do  not  overtask  the  brain  or 
injure  health.  It  is  fashionable  to  charge  to  the  school  a  long 
list  of  ills  which  really  belong  to  a  different  "account." 


STUDY  AND   HEALTH.  12  i 

The  proper  training  and  exertion  of  the  mind  will  not  harm 
the  health.  The  body  is  the  instrument  through  which  the 
mind  works,  and  its  power  depends,  in  no  small  degree,  on  the 
vigor  of  the  physical  system.  Increased  effort  and  energy  of 
mind  must  be  balanced  by  proper  activity  of  the  body.  The 
mischievous  error  prevalent  on  this  subject  is  a  common  excuse 
for  indolence  and  inefficiency.  Study  need  not  be  injurious  to 
health.  The  mind  itself  was  made  to  work.  Its  primal  law 
is  growth  by  work.  It  can  gain  strength  only  by  spending  it. 
The  intensest  study  invigorates  the  body  as  well  as  the  mind, 
strengthens  both  the  nervous  and  muscular  system,  makes  the 
blood  course  in  stronger  health-giving  currents  through  the 
system,  enlarges  the  brain,  erects  the  form,  softens  the  features, 
brightens  the  eye,  animates  the  countenance,  dignifies  the  whole 
person,  and  in  every  way  conduces  to  health,  provided  only 
that  it  is  pursued  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  hygiene  as  to 
diet,  exercise,  rest,  sleep  and  ventilation. 

Dr.  Flint  says,  in  the  American  Practitioner :  "Sanitarians 
have  of  late  had  much  to  say  respecting  the  evils  of  over-exer- 
tion of  the  intellect.  But  there  is  another  aspect  of  the  etiology 
of  morbid  mental  conditions  concerning  which  much  less  has 
been  said,  namely,  deficient  exercise  of  the  intellectual  powers, 
or  insufficient  activity  of  the  mind  as  a  source  of  morbific 
agencies.  The  diseases  of  both  body  and  mind  originate  quite 
as  often  in  a  want  of  the  proper  action  of  the  intellectual  and  ' 
moral  faculties  as  in  their  over  use  or  excitation.  Occupations 
which  employ  the  intellect  are  likely  to  prevent  inordinate 
attention  to  the  bodily  functions,  and  herein  their  influence  is 
prophylactic.  Abundant  illustrations  of  the  evils  of  deficient 
activity  of  the  mind  are  to  be  found  among  those  who,  under 
the  delusive  expectation  of  enjoying  leisure  and  rest,  have 
relinquished  pursuits  which  involved  a  habitual  exercise  of  the 
mental  faculties." 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  well  says:  "It  is  not  work  but  worry 
that  kills  men.     Work  is  healthy.     You  can  hardly  put  more 
on  a  man  than  he  can  bear.     Men  literally  worry  themselves  to 
death.     Worry  is  rust  upon  the  bladeT    It  is  not  the  revolution 
that  destroys  the  machinery,  but  the  friction.     Fear  secretes- 
acid,  but  love  and  trust  are  sweet  juices." 


122  STUDY  AND   HEALTH. 

Undoubtedly  the  minds  of  very  little  children  are  often  stim- 
ulated by  parents  and  nurses  to  premature  and  therefore 
injurious  activity.  I  have  no  sympathy  with  any  processes  for 
initiating  babes  in  the  knowledge  of  books.  Such  prodigies,  how- 
ever they  may  gratify  the  pride  of  parents,  always  suggest  pain- 
ful apprehensions  of  future  debility  and  premature  decrepitude. 
Precocity  is  unnatural  and  undesirable,  because  it  is  the  symp- 
tom, if  not  the  cause,  of  disease.  Early  ripeness  of  mind,  as  of 
fruit,  is  hastened  by  a  secret  enemy  at  the  core,  and  however 
attractive  the  exterior,  it  is  found  in  reality  lifeless  and  iosipid. 
It  shows  well  for  a  time,  like  plants  in  a  hot-house  with  large 
tops  and  little  roots.  What  is  gained  in  time  poorly  compen- 
sates for  the  loss  of  maturity  and  spirit.  Precocity  stints  the 
growth  of  both  body  and  mind,  if  it  does  not  become  the  tomb 
of  talents  and  health.  Lucretia  Maria  Davidson  wrote  verses 
at  four  years,  and  died  before  completing  her  seventeenth  year, 
leaving  over  two  hundred  separate  pieces  of  poetic  composition. 
Her  sister  Margaret  began  to  write  poetry  at  six,  at  ten  acted  in 
a  passionate  drama  in  New  York  City,  and  died  at  fourteen. 

Where  is  to  be  found  a  man  of  strength  who  was  a  prodigy 
in  reading  and  reasoning  at  four  years?  Dr.  Johnson  used 
dryly  to  ask,  "  what  becomes  of  all  the  clever  children?"  Many 
children  begin  the  study  of  books  when  they  should  be  follow- 
ing the  strong  native  bent  of  childhood  in  observing  objects. 
The  perceptive  faculties  should  be  first  addressed.  Teachers 
too  seldom  inquire  what  is  the  order  in  which  the  juvenile 
powers  are  to  be  developed,  and  hence  lessons  are  often  assigned 
which  task  the  reflective  faculties  chiefly,  when,  in  the  natural 
order  of  growth,  they  should  be  comparatively  latent.  Violence 
is  done  to  a  child  who,  at  this  tender  age,  is  harrassed  with 
problems  of  arithmetic  or  the  intricacies  of  grammar.  Observa- 
tion precedes  reflection.  At  the  earliest  school  age,  the  memory 
as  well  as  the  perceptive  faculties  may  be  pleasantly  and  safely 
exercised  with  attractive  lessons,  or  observations  rather,  on 
form,  color,  size,  weight,  place,  number,  time,  the  obvious  qual- 
ities of  common  things,  and  the  form  or  spelling  of  words,  and 
in  reading.  Let  those  exercises  be  very  brief — relieved  after 
each  lesson  by  gymnastics  or  marchings  and  music,  and  the 
primary  school  becomes  a  sort  of  play  or  kindergarten,  safe  and 
healthful  for  vigorous  children  of  five  years  of  age. 


STUDY   AND    HEALTH.  123 

Bat  the  objection  under  consideration  relates  chiefly  to  much 
older  children.  In  regard  to  them  even  the  wise  man  is  quoted 
to  confirm  that  view  :  "  Much  study  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh." 
Very  true.  So  also  the  most  invigorating  and  healthful  kinds 
of  labor  and  exercise  bring  for  the  time  weariness,  till  relieved 
by  repose.  There  are  undoubtedly  exceptional  cases  of  older 
children,  whose  nervous  state,  or  otherwise  abnormal  condition, 
requires  the  partial  or  entire  suspension  of  study.  But  even  in 
these  cases,  the  illness  is  commonly  due  to  other  causes  than 
excessive  study.  When  the  plainest  laws  of  health  are  vio- 
lated, when,  for  example,  children  are  crammed  with  mince- 
pies,  colored  candies,  or  doughnuts,  between  meals  and  before 
retiring,  it  is  hardly  fair  that  the  inevitable  result  should  be 
charged  to  the  overtasking  of  the  teacher. 

After  the  earnest  studies  of  school,  and  in  addition  to  all  the 
gymnastics  there  introduced,  let  children  be  encouraged  to 
walk  and  ride,  work  and  play,  run  and  romp  ;  let  them  row 
boats,  jump  rope,  trundle  hoop,  twang  the  bow,  pitch  quoits, 
try  for  ten  strikes,  play  at  ball,  base,  cricket,  or  croquet,  or 
with  shuttlecock  and  battledoor,  and  then  we  shall  hear  far  less 
of  the  evil  of  overtasking  the  brain.  I  have  no  fear  of  stimula-  ^ 
ting  healthy  children,  of  suitable  age,  to  excessive  study  during 
school  hours,  provided  they  are  relieved  by  proper  intervals  for 
gymnastics  and  music. 

The  history  of  West  Point  well  illustrates  the  healthfulness  - 
of  study,  and  recommends  to  all  students  the  hygienic  regula- 
tions there  f  jund  to  be  so  successful.  Though  the  standard  of 
admission  is  low,  the  demand  for  application  is  unusually  exact- 
ing, and  the  relative  progress  remarkable.  No  other  institu- 
tion has  so  uniformly  and  rigidly  insisted  on  thoroughness  of 
study  and  instruction.  The  example  of  such  exact  methods, 
both  of  learning  and  teaching,  is  fitted  to  exert  a  happy  influ- 
ence upon  the  cause  of  education  throughout  the  land.  Says  a 
competent  observer  and  a  graduate  :  "  The  course  of  the  Mili- 
tary Academy  is  probably  the  most  severe  of  any  similar  one 
in  the  world."  The  cadets  are  instructed,  not  in  classes,  but  in 
small  sections  of  from  ten  to  twelve  each,  and  in  these  small 
sections  not  less  than  one  hour  and  a  half  is  devoted  to  each 
recitation  in  mathematics,  science,  natural   philosophy  or  en- 


124  STUDY  AND   HEALTH. 

gineering,  and  the  shortest  recitations  occupy  at  least  one  hour. 
The  great  characteristic  excellence  of  the  system  here  adopted 
is  the  amount  of  personal  instruction  given  to  individuals,  and 
in  adaptation  to  the  perceived  deficiences,  or  excellences,  of 
each  cadet  This  plan  soon  tests  and  discovers  the  capacity  of 
individuals.  It  necessitates  the  mastery  of  every  lesson.  It 
leaves  no  way  to  shirk  knotty  points,  to  dodge  hard  problems 
or  calculate  "  the  chance  of  not  being  called  up  to-day,"  as 
is  so  often  done  in  other  institutions.  The  cadet  never  has 
occasion  to  say  that  he  has  mastered  the  lesson,  for  nothing  is 
taken  for  granted,  and  nothing  is  done  by  proxy.  He  must 
always  give  the  proof  by  himself  solving  every  problem  or  de- 
monstrating every  theorem,  or  stating  and  defending  every  prin- 
ciple or  fact  in  clear  and  exact  terms.  In  geometry,  for  exam- 
ple, in  addition  to  the  demonstrations,  he  must  be  ready,  at 
every  recitation,  to  draw  from  memory  all  the  diagrams 
embraced,  both  in  the  advance  and  review  lesson,  and  enunciate 
accurately  all  the  propositions  and  principles  involved.  He 
must  be  prepared  in  this  way  to  state  and  demonstrate  any 
proposition  over  which  he  has  passed  in  any  part  of  his 
course.  All  the  diagrams  of  both  the  advance  and  review 
lesson  must  be  daily  drawn  by  every  cadet  in  each  section. 
The  same  method  is  substantially  adopted  in  the  various 
branches  of  mathematics,  until,  by  frequent  reiteration,  the 
most  profound  principles  and  difficult  processes  become  familiar 
as  the  daily  drills  have  rendered  the  manual  of  arms. 

Notwithstanding  the  severity  of  the  studies  and  exacting 
rigor  of  the  recitations,  and  the  rivalry  of  the  students,  the 
health  of  the  cadets  is  uncommonly  good.  It  is  a  rare  thing 
for  a  cadet  to  break  down  from  over-study.  This  is  due,  not 
primarily  to  the  fact  that  all  candidates  admitted  must  possess 
a  sound  constitution,  but  more  to  the  excellent  hygienic  rules 
of  the  academy. 

In  no  other  literary  institution  within  ray  knowledge  are 
the  laws  of  health  so  rigidly  observed ;  in  no  other  are  the 
requirements  for  study  so  severe  and  unrelenting,  especially  in 
the  higher  mathematics.  One  of  the  cadets,  among  the  best 
scholars  of  his  class,  said  to  me,  "  Before  I  came  under  this 
rigid  regime,  I  could  scarcely  bear  a  tithe  of  the  application  I 


STUDY   AND   HEALTH.  125 

have  here  safely  practiced."  There  are  regular  hours  for  study, 
recreation,  exercise,  sleep  and  meals.  The  food  is  ample  but 
the  diet  plain.  No  restaurant  is  tolerated  on  the  premises,  to 
suggest  or  facilitate  the  noxious  practice  of  eating  between 
meals,  or  at  late  hours  in  the  evening.  No  tempting  "  saloon" 
disturbs  the  stomach  with  pastry,  cakes,  or  confectionery.  The 
regular  and  frequent  military  drills,  the  gymnasium,  and  the 
equitation-hall,  invite  or  exact  abundant  and  most  invigorating 
exercise. 

Our  colleges  have  recently  provided  new  facilities  and  encour- 
agements for  gymnastic  training.  The  results  are  everywhere 
happy,  and  happiest  where,  as  at  Amherst  College,  it  has  been 
made  a  department  of  positive  duty,  under  the  direction  of  a 
college  instructor.  But  no  college  within  my  knowledge  com- 
pares favorably  with  the  United  States  Military  Academy  in 
regard  to  the  prominence  uniformly,  and  hy  regulation^  given  to 
physical  education.  Besides  the  wide  range  of  gymnastic 
exercises,  infantry  tactics,  sabre  practice  and  fencing,  the  cadets 
are  trained  in  mortar  practice,  use  of  howitzers,  coast  and  siege 
batteries,  target  tiring  with  light  and  heavy  ordnance,  but  es- 
pecially the  Parrott  gun,  and  in  the  still  more  exciting  and  ex- 
hilarating drills  of  flying  artillery,  cavalry  and  trooper.  The 
trooper's  drill  requires  the  most  perfect  horsemanship  and  quick- 
ness of  eye  and  hand.  To  vault  into  the  saddle  and  sit  erect 
and  easy,  and  carry  in  proper  position  the  toe,  heel,  knee,  bridle- 
arm  and  fingers,  is  but  the  first  step  in  the  trooper's  training. 
The  hurdle  race  next  tests  his  nerve,  and  tells  the  horse  the 
spirit  of  his  rider  as  quicklj^  as  the  drill-master.  I  never  saw 
elsewhere  so  striking  an  illustration  of  the  unity  of  the  horse 
and  his  rider.  On  one  occasion  I  was  visiting  West  Point  when 
a  new  class  were  taking  their  first  lessons  in  the  hurdle  race. 
The  horsemanship  of  each  rider  seemed  to  be  as  apparent  to 
the  horse  as  to  the  observer.  The  bold  and  upright  attitude  of 
one  showed  him  to  be  at  home  in  the  saddle,  and  his  horse 
leaped  the  hurdle  hke  a  deer ;  the  hugging  legs,  and  timid, 
crouching  position  of  another,  so  dispirited  the  horse  that  noth- 
ing but  the  lash  of  the  drill-master  would  carry  him  over. 

Another  drill  demands  both  coolness  and  agility.  Dumb- 
heads are  placed  on  movable  posts,  standing  about  ten  yards 


126  STUDY   AND    HEALTH. 

apart,  two  on  each  side  of  tlie  equitation-hall.  The  trooper, 
with  his  revolver,  fires  at  these  heads  while  riding  at  full  speed. 
If  the  first  head  is  hit,  to  cock,  aim  and  fire  while  going  rap- 
idly ten  yards,  is  a  discipline  of  skill  and  dexterity.  Again,  for 
sabre  practice,  ten  yards  beyond  the  second  dumb  head,  on 
each  side  of  the  hall,  is  placed  a  pendent  ring  about  three 
inches  in  diameter.  In  this  drill,  spurring  his  horse  to  the  gal- 
lop, he  pierces  the  first  head  with  the  point  of  his  sabre  in  a 
forward  thrust,  and  cuts  off  the  second  with  a  back  stroke,  and 
picks  on  the  point  of  his  sabre  the  pendent  ring.  A  majority 
of  the  first  class  would  hit  every  head  and  carry  off  both  rings. 

Besides  these  various  forms  of  physical  training,  the  bath- 
rooms, hospital  accommodations,  and  other  arrangements  for 
health  are  truly  admirable.  The  bath-rooms  are  so  neatly  kept 
and  furnished  as  to  invite  a  ready  obedience  to  the  rule  that 
every  cadet  must  bathe  at  least  twice  a  week,  at  certain  pre- 
scribed hours.  The  hospital  accommodations  are  ample,  and 
usually  empty,  and,  fortunately,  the  ofiice  of  the  excellent  post' 
surgeon  seems  to  be  nearly  a  sinecure.  Long  may  he  keep 
it  so. 

The  reveille  early  summons  all  to  duty,  and  the  close 
alternation  of  study,  recitation,  drill,  or  gymnastics  so  fully 
uses  up  both  time  and  strength,  that  the  cadets  are  quite 
ready  for  tattoo  at  10  o'clock  at  night,  when  all  lights  must 
be  extinguished.  There  is,  therefore,  nearly  the  same  uni- 
formity in  the  hour  of  retiring  as  of  rising.  Well  would  it  be 
if  a  tattoo,  or  regard  to  the  laws  of  health,  no  less  impera- 
tive, closed  all  lights  and  eyes  as  seasonably  in  our  schools  and 
colleges.  How  many  students  graduate  from  other  institutions, 
with  mental  energy  braced  by  no  physical  vigor,  attended  by  a 
positive  aversion  to  active  exercise,  if  not  enfeebled  by  bodily 
languor,  impaired  health  or  a  broken  constitution.  How  sad 
a  contrast  to  the  exuberant  health,  the  joyous  glow  of  bodily 
energy,  the  strength  of  constitution,  the  power  of  endurance, 
the  scorn  of  ease,  the  love  of  toil  and  adventure,  and  the  eager- 
ness for  exploits,  which  mark  the  cadets  as  they  come  forth  like 
racers  panting  for  the  course. 

I  have  already  referred  to  Amherst  College  as  the  only  one 
of  our  larger  Institutions,  except  the  United  States  Military  and 


STUDY   AND   HEALTH.  127 

Naval  Academies,  which  oflficially  requires  the  systematic  train- 
ing of  the  body.  Physical  culture  is  there  made  a  regular  de- 
partment as  much  as  Chemistry  or  the  Classics,  with  a  professor, 
who  is  a  thoroughly  educated  physician  and  guardian  of  the 
health  of  the  institution.  In  illustration  of  the  plan  and  its 
happy  results,  I  quote  the  following  statements  from  Dr.  Nathan 
Allen,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  standard  of  hotti 
scholarship  and  health  has  been  thus  raised.  It  is  the  duty  of 
the  head  of  this  department  "  to  see  that  the  laws  of  Hygiene 
are  observed,  to  watch  over  the  physical  welfare  of  everj^  stu- 
dent, striving  to  correct  as  far  as  possible  all  physical  weaknesses, 
defects,  and  habits  injurious  to  health,  and  in  case  of  sick- 
ness advising  and  directing  the  best  treatment.  It  is  also  made 
his  duty  to  give  lectures  upon  Hygienic  Physiology,  and  the 
great  laws  of  life  and  health  :  and  in  order  to  preserve  a  sound 
constitution  and  thereby  prevent  disease,  a  series  of  gymnastic 
exercises  has  been  introduced  as  a  part  of  the  regular  college 
duties,  and  every  student,  (except  for  physical  imperfection,)  is 
required  to  take  part  in  them,  under  the  inspection  of  his  in- 
structor. These  exercises  are  so  designed  and  varied  as  to 
exercise  every  part  of  the  body  in  the  most  natural  and  bene- 
ficial manner.  It  is  no  part  of  the  plan  to  develop  particular 
muscles  for  great  feats  of  agility  and  strength,  but  to  train  the 
whole  body  for  its  highest  and  most  efficient  action.  It  is  in- 
tended that  every  muscle  and  tissue  of  the  system  shall  be 
developed  in  harmony  with  every  portion  of  the  brain  and 
faculty  of  the  mind.  By  this  systematic  training,  it  is  found 
that  the  students  accomplish  far  more  in  their  studies,  thus 
elevating  the  standard  of  scholarship  in  this  institution,  while 
their  constitutions  in  the  meantime  are  not  broken  down  or  im- 
paired,— so  that  physically  as  well  as  mentally  they  are  better 
prepared  for  the  more  public  and  responsible  duties  of  after 
years.  It  is  also  a  well  known  fact  that  since  the  introduction 
of  these  exercises  there  has  been  a  decided  improvement  in  the 
health  of  students  generally,  and  less  sickness  as  well  as  mortality. 
These  exercises  are  not  only  compulsory,  but  faithful  atten- 
dance upon  them,  as  well  as  careful  observance  of  the  laws  of 
Hygiene  generally,  are  taken  into  account  in  making  up  the 
rank  and  scholarship  of  each  student.     Every  year's  experience 


128  STUDY  AND   HEALTH. 

Las  satisfied  the  officers  of  tlie  College  more  and  more  of  the 
great  advantages  derived  from  this  department.  And  so  hearty 
in  the  appreciation  of  these  advantanges  are  the  students,  that 
they  would  dispense  with  any  other  department  in  college 
sooner  than  that  of  Physical  Culture.  The  true  secret  of  its 
success  is  found  in  the  fact,  that  the  Trustees  and  Faculty,  from 
its  commencement,  have  attached  great  importance  to  it,  and 
given  it  character  by  making  it  one  of  the  departments  of  the 
College.  The  students  also  deserve  much  credit  for  their  zeal- 
ous and  practical  endorsement  of  these  measures.  If  such 
is  the  connection  of  the  mind  with  the  body  as  to  render  all 
mental  development  and  acquisition  greatly  dependent  upon 
the  strength  and  condition  of  the  physical  system,  is  it  not  the 
part  of  wisdom  and  duty  to  see,  that  in  the  training  of  youth, 
in  the  educational  process,  the  laws  of  the  mind  and  body 
should  be  taken  into  account  ?  Can  any  good  reason  be  given 
why  the  laws  of  the  one  should  be  ignored  or  violated,  when 
experience  shows  that  such  a  course  so  often  results  in  failure  ? 
Are  not  the  laws  of  the  body  a  part  of  the  government  of  God, 
to  which  we  owe  allegiance  as  much  as  those  of  the  mind  or 
soul  ?  Modern  science,  in  connection  with  the  most  advanced 
views  of  education,  is  teaching  us  more  and  more,  every  year, 
tbe  importance  of  good  health — of  a  sound  constitution,  in  order 
to  secure  the  highest  success  in  life;  and  this  depends  very 
much  upon  the  proper  care  and  training  of  the  body  in  youth. 
It  is  becoming  evident  that  physical  culture  is  yet  to  occupy  a 
far  more  prominent  position  in  all  our  systems  of  education 
than  heretofore,  and  must  ere  long  be  introduced  in  some  form 
into  the  regular  exercises  of  all  our  schools,  seminaries,  and 
higher  institutions  of  learning.  We  venture  this  prediction, 
that  in  no  department  of  education  will  there  be  greater  im- 
provement for  the  next  fifty  years,  than  in  a  more  perfect 
development  of  the  human  system  and  harmony  of  function, 
between  the  laws  that  govern  both  the  mind  and  the  body." 

To  be  healthful  and  inspiring,  study  must  be  pursued  not 
as  a  task — hated  and  coerced,  but  under  the  impulse  of  such 
incentives  as  make  it  a  noble,  worthy,  cheerful,  joyous  work. 
When  interest  is  awakened,  ambition  kindled,  and  progress 
made,  the  consciousness  of  improvement  becomes  a  reward  of 


STUDY   AND   HEALTH.  129 

past  effort,  and  a  healthful  motive  to  new  exertions.  The 
exhilaration  of  success  is  a  standard  hygiene  for  the  body,  and 
cures  many  maladies  which  no  therapeutic  agents  can  reach. 
In  the  school,  as  in  the  world,  far  more  rust  out  than  wear  out. 
Study  is  most  tedious  and  wearisome  to  those  who  study  least. 
Drones  always  have  the  toughest  time.  Grumblers  make  poor 
scholars,  and  their  lessons  are  uniformly  "hard"  and  "too 
long."  The  time  and  thought  expended  in  shirking  would  be 
ample  to  master  their  tasks.  Sloth,  gormandizing  and  worry 
kill  their  thousands  where  over-study  harms  one.  The  curse 
of  Heaven  rests  on  laziness  and  glutton3^  By  the  very  consti- 
tution of  our  being  they  are  fitted  to  beget  that  torpor  and 
despondency  which  chill  the  blood,  deaden  the  nerves,  enfeeble 
the  muscles,  and  derange  the  whole  vital  machinery.  Fretting, 
fidgeting,  ennui  and  anxiety  are  among  the  most  common 
causes  of  disease.  While  now,  as  of  old,  "  a  merry  heart  doeth 
good  like  medicine,"  a  weak  will  easily  succumbs  to  the  ills  of 
life.  The  alarm  occasioned  by  the  approach  of  a  contagious 
disease  often  weakens  the  power  of  resistance,  and  directly 
invites  the  very  disease  so  much  dreaded.  Bad  news  cloys  the 
appetite  and  clogs  digestion ;  fear  relaxes  the  muscles  and 
checks  both  the  breathing  and  circulation  ;  and  fright  makes 
the  extremities  cold,  the  face  flushed  and  the  temples  throb. 
On  the  other  hand,  high  aspiration  and  enthusiasm  help  diges- 
tion and  respiration,  and  send  an  increased  supply  of  vital 
energy  to  all  parts  of  the  body.  Courage  and  work  invigorate 
the  whole  system,  and  lift  one  into  a  purer  atmosphere,  above 
the  reach  of  contagion. 

The  lazy  groan  most  over  their  "  arduous  duties ;"  while 
earnest  workers  talk  little  about  the  exhausting  labors  of  their 
profession.  Of  all  creatures,  the  sloth  would  seem  to  be  most 
wearied  and  worn.  "  He  that  is  slothful  in  his  work  is  brother 
to  him  that  is  a  great  waster" — first  of  all  of  health.  Said  Dr. 
Humphrey,  for  twenty-two  years  the  President  of  Amherst 
College,  and  who  reached  the  age  of  eighty -two:  "I  have  yet 
to  see  the  man  who  died  from  the  effects  of  study."  Kant,  an 
indefatigable  student  in  the  most  profound  themes  of  meta- 
physics, and  leader  of  a  new  school  in  philosophy,  lived  beyond 
the  limits  of  three-score  and  ten.     As  the  result  of  his  long 


130  STUDY  AND   HEALTH. 

experience  and  wide  observation,  he  was  wont  to  say  :  •'  Intel- 
lectual pursuits  tend  to  prolong  life/'  He  placed  great  re- 
liance on  the  power  of  cheerfulness  and  will  in  resisting  disease. 
''Be  of  good  cheer"  is  as  wise  a  prescription  for  the  health  of 
the  body  as  of  the  soul. 

Barbaric  races  are  comparatively  puny  and  short-lived.  The 
increase  of  knowledge  and  the  advance  of  civilization  have 
greatly  lengthened  human  life.  This  fact  is  abundantly  estab- 
lished by  statistics  in  all  of  tbe  most  educated  countries  of  tbe 
world,  and  the  careful  investigations  of  life  insurance  com- 
panies. Old  men  are  seldom  found  among  savages,  and  the 
rate  of  mortality  is  proportioned  in  some  measure  to  the  degree 
of  barbarism ;  while  early  deaths  everywhere  diminish  as 
science  and  general  culture  advance.  It  is  said  that  the  statis- 
tics of  Geneva  show  that  from  1600  to  1700,  the  average  length 
of  life  in  that  city  was  18  years  and  3  months.  From  1700  to 
1750,  it  was  27  years  and  9  months.  From  1750  to  1800,  it 
was  36  and  8  months.  From  1800  to  1833,  it  was  43  years  and 
6  months. 

The  great  scholars,  philosophers,  poets,  statesmen,  orators, 
discoverers  and  savants,  have  been,  as  a  general  fact,  men  of 
abounding  health  and  long-lived.  The  Necrology  of  ministers, 
as  shown  in  the  annual  reports  of  different  denominations,  is 
striking  in  this  particular,  especially  in  view  of  the  well-known 
fact  that  physical  infirmity  sometimes  determines  the  choice  of 
a  professional  life.  In  some  families,  the  son  who  is  too  frail 
to  work  goes  to  college.  Many  years  ago,  one  of  five  sons  of 
a  New  Hampshire  farmer  was  sent  to  college,  because  his  feeble 
constitution  could  not  endure  the  labors  of  the  farai,  which  his 
rugged  brothers  pursued  for  life.  He  was  long  a  scholarly  and 
successful  pastor,  and  recently  died  at  eighty -five,  surviving  all 
his  brothers.     Study  evidently  prolonged  his  life. 

To  give  a  few  out  of  a  multitude  of  illustrations.  Lord  Bacon, 
Milton,  Mcintosh,  Burke,  Berkely,  Sir  William  Hamilton, 
President  Stiles,  President  Dwight,  Washington,  Benjamin 
Kush  and  Audubon,  reached  nearly  three-score  and  ten  years. 
Dry  den,  Adam  Clark,  Leibnitz,  Linnaeus,  Lock,  Crabb,  Dugal 
Stewart,  Swift,  Koger  Bacon,  Haydn,  Handel,  Webster  and 
Wilberforce,  ranged  from  seventy  to  eighty. 


STUDY   AND    HEALTH.  131 

The  advanced  age  of  the  great  British  statesmen,  among  the 
most  intense  thinkers  of  the  world,  strikingly  illustrates  the 
healthfulness  of  intellectual  pursuits.  Lord  John  Russell  is 
now  eighty-one.  Lord  Palmerston  was  Premier  at  eighty  and 
died  at  eighty-one.  Lord  Brougham  made  able  speeches  in 
Parliament  after  he  was  eighty-seven  and  died  at  ninety.  Lord 
Lyndhurst  electrified  the  House  of  Lords  by  a  brilliant  speech 
when  he  was  ninety  and  died  at  ninety-one. 

The  average  of  the  deceased  Presidents  of  Yale  College  was 
sixty-nine  years,  and  of  all  the  deceased  Presidents  and  Profes- 
sors, over  sixty-five  years. 

The  average  age  of  all  the  deceased  Presidents  of  the  United 
States,  now  fifteen  in  number,  was  seventy-four  and  one-half 
years.  Mr.  Lincoln,  falling  by  the  hand  of  an  assassin  while 
in  health  and  with  one  exception  the  youngest  of  all  the  Presi- 
dents at  his  premature  death,  of  course  unduly  reduces  this 
average.  One — Millard  Fillmore — is  still  living  at  the  age  of 
seventy-three. 

Wordsworth,  Rollin,  Roscoe,  Dr.  Harvey  and  Chief  Justice 
Marshall  died  at  eighty.  The  three  Adamses — Grovernor  Sam- 
uel, John  and  John  Quincy — and  Noah  Webster,  averaged 
eighty-five.  John  Wesley,  leading  a  life  of  intense  activity, 
continued  to  work  without  faltering  till  one  week  before  his 
death,  at  the  age  of  eighty-eight. 

Carl  Ritter,  Franklin,  Pestalozzi,  Herschel,  Newton,  Sweden - 
borg,  Mirabeau,  Rowland  Hill,  Washington  Irving,  the  astron- 
omer Halley,  the  mathematician  Hutton,  the  theologians 
Beecher,  Emmons  and  Dana,  averaged  eighty-five  years. 
Hobbs,  Humboldt,  Ferguson,  Sir  Christopher  Wren,  Bishop 
Wilson,  Fontenelle,  William  Ellery,  Presidents  Johnson,  of 
Columbia  College,  Day,  of  Yale,  and  Nott,  of  Union,  averaged 
ninety-two. 

These  individual  cases  illustrate  rather  than  prove  my  posi- 
tion. Many  similar  facts  might  be  given  to  confirm  this  theory. 
But  the  statistics  and  table  given  below  amount  to  a  demon- 
stration of  'the  healthfulness  of  intellectual  pursuits — clearly 
proving  that  longevity  of  scholars  is  greater  than  that  of  any 
other  class  of  men.  This  evidence  is  the  more  satisfactory 
because  it  embraces  large  numbers  and  a  long  period  of  time. 


132 


STUDY   AND  HEALTH. 


During  the  eighteenth  century  the  average  age  of  the  de- 
ceased graduates  was  over  62  years.  The  average  of  deceased 
graduates  reported  from  1841  to  1873  was  56f. 

A  TABLE, 

Showing  tfie  age  of  deceased  graduates  of  Yale  College,  whose  deaths  were  reported 
from  August,  1841,  to  June,  1813. 


Report  of 

No.  of 
deaths 

20 
to  30 

80 

40 

50 

60 

70 

80 

Over 

Average 

f 

the  year. 

report'd 

years 

to  40 

to  50 

to  60 

to  70 

to  80 

to  90 

90 

Agef 

s. 

1842 

36 

6 

5 

5 

0 

7 

7 

5 

2 

57i* 

p 

1843 

28 

1 

4 

2 

3 

2 

6 

8 

2 

66^ 

3 

52 

1844 

55 

8 

6 

6 

8 

8 

9 

10 

0 

66A 

1845 

66 

8 

12 

15 

5 

5 

14 

7 

0 

62f 

1846 

41 

8 

9 

2 

3 

4 

8 

7 

0 

53 

1847 

40 

2 

7 

8 

7 

8 

2 

6 

0 

64f 

1* 

1848 

65 

7 

11 

11 

12 

8 

9 

7 

0 

52^ 

t3* 

1849 

50 

10 

3 

6 

5 

9 

10 

7 

0 

55i 

0 

1850 

60 

9 

1 

4 

7 

8 

9 

5 

1 

54| 

B 

1851 

57 

8 

15 

5 

7 

9 

4 

6 

3 

52 

f 

1852 

44 

6 

3 

7 

7 

7 

3 

8 

3 

59 

^ 

1853 

66 

13 

6 

12 

6 

11 

10 

6 

2 

53f 

1-1 

1854 

42 

8 

8 

9 

5 

5 

3 

4 

0 

49 

S. 

1855 

58 

8 

10 

9 

8 

10 

9 

4 

0 

52-/9 

1856 

44 

6 

9 

5 

7 

4 

8 

4 

1 

53A- 

i 

1857 

50 

3 

7 

3 

6 

8 

14 

6 

3 

62 

1 

1858 

50 

2 

6 

5 

6 

8 

20 

4 

0 

61f 

00 

1859 

46 

2 

4 

6 

6 

13 

9 

4 

3 

63 

05 
or 

1860 

43 

7 

7 

3 

7 

9 

6 

5 

0 

54 

1861 

57 

2 

0 

5 

10 

10 

12 

8 

1 

60i 

1 

1862 

69 

3 

10 

10 

9 

6 

15 

5 

2 

57f 

4 

1863 

68 

20 

12 

6 

8 

7 

9 

5 

1 

48 

27 

1864 

66 

18 

7 

12 

5 

8 

10 

4 

2 

49f 

18 

1865 

62 

11 

10 

4 

5 

8 

14 

7 

3 

56| 

18 

1866 

66 

8 

7 

5 

5 

17 

16 

6 

1 

59* 

6 

1867 

54 

7 

4 

6 

8 

8 

14 

7 

0 

69 

1868 

56 

7 

7 

2 

8 

11 

15 

4 

2 

69,\ 

1 

1869 

65 

4 

8 

7 

6 

11 

18 

10 

1 

6H 

4 

1870 

55 

4 

7 

2 

7 

14 

17 

4 

0 

61 

9 

t    " 

55 

5 

13 

6 

7 

14 

6 

4 

0 

54 

1871 

72 

6 

8 

8 

10 

11 

23 

6 

2 

60i 

1872 

53 

5 

8 

11 

2 

11 

10 

6 

0 

66* 

1873 

75 

5 

6 

11 

8 

15 

18 

10 

2 

55f 

Totals, 

1793 

225 

255_ 

218 

211 

293 

356 

198 

37 

56| 

88t 

The  thorough  investigations  of  Life  Insurance  Companies 
establish  the  same  conclusion,  so  that  it  is  strenuously  urged 
that  the  lives  of  youth  connected  with  the  learned  professions, 
and  especially  clergymen,  may  safely  be  insured  at  much 
below  the  average  rates. 

*  Three  lost  at  sea,  whose  average  age  was  23  years. 
+  Supplementary  to  the  eleven  previous  Reports. 
l  Average  age  of  these  88,  31  years. 


STUDY   AND   HEALTH.  183 

Dr.  Palmer's  statistics  of  Harvard  College  from  the  year  1851 
to  1868  show  the  average  age  of  Harvard  graduates  deceased 
during  that  period  to  be  58,  while  throughout  the  State  of 
Massachusetts,  the  average  of  all  who  die  after  they  reach  20  is 
only  50.  Here  adults  only  enter  into  the  comparison  in  either 
case. 

The  period  selected  by  Dr.  Palmer  embraces  few  war  casual- 
ties, while  the  above  table  includes  not  only  the  74  who  died 
in  the  service,  but  also  the  11  whose  death  since  the  war  was 
caused  or  hastened  by  exposures  in  the  army.  The  average 
age  of  these  88  whose  deaths  resulted  from  the  war  was  only 
81.  Considering  also  the  three  lost  at  sea  at  the  average  of 
twenty-three,  we  may  safely  put  the  real  average  at  Yale  for  the 
entire  period  of  thirty-two  years  as  at  least  fifty-eight,  instead 
of  fifty-six  and  five-ninths. 

In  an  article  on  the  Vital  Statistics  of  College  Graduates, 
Gen.  John  Eaton,  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education, 
says :  "  Vital  statistics  show^  an  increase  in  the  average  dura- 
tion of  life,  due  in  great  part  to  the  multiplication  of  comforts, 
the  better  protection  from  the  elements,  the  improvement  in  the 
quantity  and  quality  of  food,  and  the  great  saving  of  physical 
effort  and  exposure  caused  by  the  invention  and  wide-spread 
introduction  of  labor-saving  machinerj^,  the  improvement  of 
morals,  or,  in  one  phrase,  the  progress  of  civilization.  These 
results  may  be  largely  credited  to  the  increasing  general  intel- 
ligence of  the  people,  the  direct  result  of  that  common-school 
system  which  seeks  to  educate  every  child  in  the  community." 

These  investigations  establish  another  striking  and  important 
fact.  As  a  general  rule  in  the  most  advanced  years  of  literary 
men,  when  the  bodily  sight  has  failed  in  part  or  entirely,  the 
mental  eye  has  remained  undimmed.  This  remarkable  contin- 
uance of  reason  and  intellectual  vigor  to  extreme  age  is  itself  a 
proof  of  the  healthfulness  of  study.  The  following  testimony 
secured  by  Gen.  Eaton,  confirms  the  preceding  statements. 
President  Porter,  of  Yale  College,  says :  "  So  far  as  my  knowl- 
edge at  present  extends,  not  more  than  eight  of  the  academical 
graduates  of  this  college,  between  1886  and  1860,  have  become 
insane,  while  none  are  known  to  have  been  convicted  of  crime, 
or  to  have  become  paupers,  or  dependent  on  the  public  for  sup- 
9 


134  STUDY  AND   HEALTH. 

port."  President  Cummings,  of  the  Wesley  an  University, 
writes :  "  I  know  of  no  one  of  the  alumni  of  Wesleyan  Uni- 
versity who  has  become  insane ;  none  who  are  known  to  have 
been  convicted  of  crime ;  none  who  have  become  paupers ; 
none  who  have  become  or  are  dependent  on  the  public  for  sup- 
port." 

It  is  not  study  itself,  then,  that  injures  health,  but  habits  and 
conditions  that  have  no  necessary  connection  with  study. 
Aside  from  facts,  it  seems  improbable  that  the  culture  and  exer- 
cise of  the  noblest  part  of  our  nature  should  prove  a  drain 
upon  the  vital  functions  of  the  body.  Let  study  be  pursued  in 
our  schools  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of  hygiene ;  let  singing 
and  gymnastics  alternate  with  lessons  and  recitations ;  let  the 
posture  of  pupils  be  erect,  their  breathing  deep  and  the  rooms 
ventilated,  and  all  proper  rules  of  health  be  heeded,  and  little 
will  be  said  of  "the  slaughter  of  the  innocents  in  school." 
Indiscretions  at  home  do  a  thousand  fold  more  harm  than  over- 
study  at  school.  Concerts,  parties,  balls,  late  hours  generally, 
neglect  of  exerci^  in  the  open  air,  three  or  four  hours'  daily 
confinement  at  the  piano,  excessive  or  indigestible  food  and 
unventilated  sleeping  rooms,  suggest  the  secret  of  many  pale 
faces  and  frail  forms. 


LABOR  AS  AN  EDUCATOR. 

Every  child  should  learn  to  work.  A  practical  knowledge 
of  some  industrial  pursuit  is  an  important  element  in  intel- 
lectual culture.  The  son  of  affluence  who  is  conscious  that  he 
could  maintain  himself  by  honest  labor,  can  the  better  use  his 
wealth,  as  well  as  appreciate  the  condition  and  needs  of  the 
poor.  Froude,  the  historian,  well  says :  "  The  ten  command- 
ments and  a  handicraft  make  a  good  and  wholesome  equipment 
to  commence  life  with.  A  man  must  learn  to  stand  upright 
upon  his  own  feet,  to  respect  himself,  to  be  independent  of 
charity  or  accident.  It  is  on  this  basis  only  that  any  super- 
structure of  intellectual  cultivation  worth  having  can  possibly 
be  built.  It  hurts  no  intellect  to  be  able  to  make  a  boat,  or  a 
house,  or  a  pair  of  shoes,  or  a  suit  of  clothes,  or  hammer  a 
horse-shoe,  and  if  one  can  do  either  of  these,  he  has  nothing  to 
fear  from  fortune.  Spinoza,  the  most  powerful  intellectual 
worker  that  Europe  had  produced  for  the  last  two  centuries, 
waving  aside  the  pensions  and  legacies  that  were  thrust  upon 
him,  chose  to  maintain  himself  by  grinding  object-glasses  for 
microscopes  and  telescopes." 

It  is  a  partial  view  of  education  which  assumes  that  books 
and  schools,  indispensable  as  they  are,  do  the  whole  work. 
Every  thing  which  the  child  sees  and  hears,  and  still  more, 
what  he  does,  educates.  This  practical  training  begins  in  the 
cradle,  and  runs  on  through  life.  The  educating  value  of  labor 
has  not  been  duly  appreciated.  Whatever  compels  one  to  think 
and  decide  on  practical  business  questions,  awakening  conscious 
responsibility  and  self-reliance,  develops  mental  power.  Busi- 
ness pursuits  frequently  discover  and  draw  out  great  talents. 
A  degree  of  foresight,  sagacity,  practical  wisdom  and  executive 
ability  are  often  displayed  in  the  management  of  commercial, 
manufacturing  or  agricultural  interests,  which  would  win  the, 
highest  eminence  if  devoted  to  either  of  the  professions. 


136  LABOR  AS  AN   EDUCATOR. 

Every  child's  education  is  deficient  who  has  not  learned  to 
work  in  some  useful  form  of  industry.  Labor  aids  in  disciplin- 
ing the  intellect  and  energizing  the  character.  Especially  does 
farm  work  task  and  test  the  mind,  by  leading  a  boy  to  plan  and 
contrive^  to  adapt  means  to  ends,  in  a  great  variety  of  ways, 
and  under  constantly  varying  circumstances.  The  necessities 
and  struggles  of  the  farm  demand  patience  and  perseverance, 
develop  force  of  character  and  energy  of  will,  and  teach  the 
needful  lesson,  "Where  there  is  a  will,  there  is  a  way."  How 
many  of  the  leading  men  of  our  country,  like  Washington, 
Webster,  Clay  and. Lincoln,  grew  up  on  the  farm  and  gained 
there  an  invaluable  discipline  for  the  conflicts  and  achievements 
of  life. 

Labor  develops  inventive  talent.  The  exigencies  of  the  far- 
mer, remote  from  villages  and  shops,  compel  him  to  be  some- 
thing of  the  carpenter,  joiner,  blacksmith  and  harness-maker — 
a  man  of  all  work — "  handy  at  anything."  His  business  varies 
with  the  seasons,  and  sometimes  changes  every  day.  A  farmer's 
boy  myself,  early  trained  in  practical  industry  and  familiar 
with  all  forms  of  farm  work,  I  have  ever  valued  highly  these 
■practical  lessons  learned  among  the  rough  hills  of  grand  old 
Litchfield  County. 

I  counsel  even  the  sons  of  affluence  to  spend  at  least  one  sea- 
son at  hard  work  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shop.  The  practical 
business  drill  there  gained,  the  knowledge  of  nature  and  do- 
mestic animals,  will  amply  compensate  for  the  consequent  loss 
'in  book  learning,  to  say  nothing  of  the  health  and  physical 
training  thus  secured.  With  all  our  improved  gymnastics, 
none  is  better  than  manual  labor,  when  it  is  cheerfully  and 
intelligently  performed,  and  especially  farm  work.  The  habits 
of  industry,  once  formed  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shop,  may  shape 
all  the  future,  teaching  one  to  value  time,  to  husband  "  the  odd 
moments,"  to  scorn  sloth  and  love  labor,  or  at  least  to  practice 
"diligence  in  business." 

The  pupils  who  luxuriate  in  the  wealthiest  homes  of  the  city 
would  profit  by  one  year  in  the  country,  with  its  peculiar  work 
and  play,  its  freer  sports  and  wider  range  of  rambles  by  the 
springs  and  brooks,  the  rivers  and  water-falls,  the  ponds  and 
lakes,  over  the  hills  and  plains,  through  the  groves  and  forests  ; 


LABOR  AS   AN   EDUCATOR.  137 

in  observing  nature,  searching  for  wild  flowers  and  curious 
stones,  learning  to  recognize  the  different  trees  by  any  one  of 
their  distinctive  marks,  viz.,  the  leaf,  flower,  fruit,  form,  bark 
and  grain,  watching  the  ant-hills,  collecting  butterflies  and  vari- 
ous insects,  noticing  the  birds  so  as, to  distinguish  them  by  their 
beaks  or  claws,  their  size,  form,  plumage,  flight  or  song.  Study- 
ing nature  in  any  one  or  more  of  these  varied  forms,  each  so 
fitted  to  charm  children,  would  refresh  their  minds  as  well  as 
recreate  their  bodies,  and  stimulate  that  curiosity  which  is  the 
parent  of  attention  and  of  memory.  Nature  is  the  great  teacher 
of  childhood,  and  with  her  the  juvenile  mind  needs  closer  con- 
tact. Facts  and  objects  are  the  leading  instruments  of  its  early 
development.  We  do  violence  to  the  child's  instinctive  cravings 
for  natural  objects  if  we  give  it  books  alone,  and  confine  it  ex- 
clusively to  the  city.  When  I  once  found  over  three  hundred 
children  in  a  city  Grammar  School,  who  had  never  visited  the 
country,  I  did  not  hesitate  to  say  that,  shut  out  from  nature, 
and  shut  in  by  brick  walls,  with  all  their  ample  apparatus 
and  able  teachers,  and  superior  school-house,  these  children 
cannot  possibly  gain  here  a  full  and  symmetrical,  development 
of  their  various  faculties.  More  needs  to  be  done  to  combine 
the  advantages  of  country  and  city  life.  With  poorer  schools 
and  shorter  terms,  and  with  far  less  apparatus,  but  under  the 
kindly  and  invigorating  influence  of  rural  scenes  and  employ- 
ments, the  country  sends  forth  its  full  share  to  the  profes- 
sions, and  into  posts  of  most  commanding  influence  in  the 
Commonwealth  and  nation.  Some  of  the  retired  rural  districts 
and  small  hill  towns  have  been  exceedingly  fertile  in  the  rich- 
est treasures  of  intellect.  "Little  Lebanon,"  for  example,  has 
raised  up  five  goveniors  of  Connecticut.  The  Litchfield  County 
Jubilee  showed  a  proud  array  of  her  sons  among  the  most  emi- 
nent men  in  our  country. 

Idleness  and  vice  are  twins,  and  while  idleness  is  always  a 
curse,  work  may  be  a  blessing.  Certainly,  industry  is  essential 
to  thrift  and  virtue,  to  the  culture  of  the  mental  as  well  as  moral 
nature.  The  Devil  tempts  everybody,  but  the  idler  tempts  the 
Devil,  who  gives  plenty  of  work  to  all  whom  he  finds  with 
nothing  to  do.  "There  are  but  three  ways  of  living ;  by  work- 
ing, by  begging,  or  by  stealing.     Those  who  do  not  work,  dis- 


138  LABOR  AS   AN   EDUCATOK. 

guise  it  in  whatever  pretty  language  we  please,  are  doing  one  of 
the  other  two !  Every  man  should  have  one  vocation,  and  as 
many  avocations  as  possible."*  Men  of  mark  are  men  of  work. 
The  most  industrious  individuals  and  races  are  the  most  intelli- 
gent and  powerful ;  the  most  elevated  morally  as  well  as  men- 
tally. In  whatever  land  man  can  subsist  in  indolence,  he 
droops  in  intellect,  and  there  is  the  greatest  demoralization  in 
those  tropical  climates  where  leisure  rather  than  labor  is  the 
rule  of  life.  Man  rises  in  the  scale  where  his  necessities  compel 
constant  industry,  as  he  sinks  where  his  wants  exact  no  labor. 
Where  industry  becomes  habitual  and  skillful,  it  not  only  sup- 
plies mere  necessities,  but  stimulates  demands  above  absolute 
^ants.  Every  pure  enjoyment  gained  by  labor  prompts  the 
desire  for  other  and  higher  gratifications.  Theodore  Parker  well 
said :  "  The  fine  arts  do  not  interest  me  so  much  as  the  coarse 
arts,  which  feed,  clothe,  house  and  comfort,  people.  I  should 
rather  be  a  great  man  as  Franklin  than  a  Michael  Angelo ;  nay, 
if  I  had  a  son,  I  should  rather  see  him  a  mechanic  who  organ- 
nized  use,  like  the  late  George  Stephenson,  in  England,  than  a 
great  painter  like  Eubens,  who  only  copied  beauty." 

The  waning  of  the  old  system  of  apprenticeships  is  a  serious 
evil.  The  limitation  fixed  by  the  "Trades  Unions"  on  the 
number  of  apprentices  allowed  to  each  shop  or  master  mechanic 
is  working  mischief.  It  is  a  gross  infringement  of  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  thousands  of  minors.  It  deprives  them  of 
that  thorough  training  in  the  several  trades  which  is  essential 
to  the  attainment  of  the  highest  skill  and  success.  Multitudes 
of  boys  anxious  to  learn  trades  and  to  become  skillful  mechan- 
ics, are  thus  unjustly  oppressed  and  prevented  from  becoming 
trained  artisans  and  valuable  members  of  society.  They  are 
defrauded  of  the  true  means  of  personal  improvement  and  per- 
manent prosperity.  The  system  of  apprenticeship  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  skilled  industry,  and  should  be  encouraged  to 
the  utmost  as  an  indispensable  part  of  the  practical  educa- 
tion of  our  future  artisans.  Otherwise,  our  youth  must  be 
forever  debarred  from  the  most  lucrative  positions,  or  sur- 
render them  to  skilled  mechanics  imported  from  abroad.  This 
plan    is    short-sighted    and    suicidal.     It  cripples    our   future 

*  Froude. 


LABOR   AS  AN  EDUCATOR.  139 

meclianics.  It  seeks  a  temporary  gain  at  the  sacrifice  of  their 
permanent  prosperity.  This  plan  of  temporary  protection  to 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  rising  generation,  and,  as  often 
happens,  of  their  own  children,  is  a  delusion.  The  plan  is  arbi- 
trary and  inconsistent  with  the  first  principles  of  a  Republican 
Government.  I  have  known  many  a  father  trying  in  vain  to 
put  his  boy  to  a  trade  where  his  services  were  desired,  and  the 
employer  was  reluctantly  compelled  to  refuse  the  applicant, 
because  "the  Union  permits  only  one  apprentice  to  five  or 
seven  journeymen."  This  rule  is  unreasonable  and  ought  to  be 
illegal.  Last  October  the  Pennsylvania  Council  of  the  Order 
of  United  American  Mechanics  wisely  resolved  "to  take  active 
measures  for  the  restoration  of  the  good  old  system  of  appren- 
ticeship, in  order  that  the  children  of  the  members  of  this  order 
may  be  enabled  to  learn  trades  thoroughly,  so  as  to  compete  with 
foreign  mechanics^^^  and  also  petitioned  the  Pennsylvania  Legis- 
lature to  pass  a  State  law  "  to  prohibit  any  art  or  trade  associa- 
tion or  combination  of  mechanics,  or  others,  from  making  lim- 
itations upon  the  number  of  apprentices  that  may  be  employed 
by  any  master  or  association,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  on 
any  art,  trade  or  manufactory." 

The  ambition  for  easier  lives  and  more  genteel  employments, 
and  the  silly  but  common  notion  that  labor  is  menial,  that  the 
tools  of  the  trades  or  of  the  farm  are  badges  of  servility,  have 
greatly  lessened  apprenticeships.  These  pernicious  notions 
ought  to  be  refuted  in  our  schools,  and  our  youth  should  there 
be  taught  the  necessity  and  dignity  of  labor,  and  its  vital 
relations  to  all  human  excellence  and  progress,  the  evils  of 
indolence,  the  absurdity  of  the  prevalent  passion  for  city  life 
and  wide-spread  aversion  to  manual  labor.  The  popular  dis- 
taste for  mechanical  pursuits  should  be  early  counteracted,  and 
more  should  be  done  in  our  schools  to  dignify  labor,  and  ren- 
der mechanical  pursuits  attractive  and  reputable.  The  Indus- 
trial Schools  for  girls  as  well  as  boys,  so  numerous  and  useful 
in  Germany,  Switzerland  and  other  portions  of  Europe,  will  be 
described  in  full  in  a  volume  on  "  The  Schools  of  Europe," 
soon  to  appear.  The  influence  of  these  Industrial  Schools  is 
as  important  in  dignifying  labor,  as  in  increasing  its  efficiency 
and  productive  value.     Boys  and  girls  are  early  taught  in  the 


140  LABOR   AS   AN   EDUCATOR. 

family  as  well  as  the  school,  that  to  learn  to  be  useful  is  alike 
their  duty,  privilege  and  interest.  But  the  theory  that  labor 
is  a  degrading  drudgery  will  consciously  demean  any  artisan 
and  bar  improvement  in  his  art.  On  the  other  hand,  pride  and 
pleasure  in  his  work  lead  to  higher  excellence  both  in  his  craft 
and  character.  He  who  always  does  his  best  to-day  can  do 
better  still  to-morrow.  It  was  a  wise  provision  of  the  Hebrews 
that  all  parents  should  teach  their  children  some  handicraft. 
This  was  with  them,  as  it  should  be  with  us,  an  essential  part 
of  the  education  of  every  child.  Among  the  Hebrews  labor  was 
always  honorable.  No  man  was  ashamed  of  his  trade.  A  man 
was  not  considered  entitled  to  live  unless  he  could  support  him- 
self No  matter  what  his  rank,  he  must  be  trained  to  work. 
While  proclaiming  the  new  gospel  for  all  the  world,  Paul  by 
the  aid  of  his  handicraft  could  assert  his  independence  and  be 
burdensome  to  no  one.  By  his  own  "  ensample,"  he  enforced 
his  precept,  "  If  any  would  not  work,  neither  should  he  eat," 
and  his  censure  of  "  the  disorderly  busy-bodies  working  not  at 
all."  "The  chief  of  the  apostles"  did  not  degrade  his  high 
office  when  he  resumed  his  early  trade  of  tent-maker.  His  asso- 
ciates seemed  never  to  suspect  that  their  old  business  of  fish- 
ermen was  disreputable.  The  Great  Teacher  honored  manual 
labor,  and  therefore  as  a  carpenter's  son  worked  patiently  at 
his  father's  trade. 

Many  of  our  youth  are  afflicted  with  the  infatuation  that  city 
clerkships  are  the  most  eligible  positions,  while  the  trades  are 
not  "  respectable."  Let  them  learn  that  intelligeni  mechanics 
have  a  better  chance  of  securing  wealth,  eminence  and  influence 
than  the  over-crowded  clerkships  can  afford.  The  most  exten- 
sive manufacturer  of  silver  in  the  world,  John  Gorham  of  Provi- 
dence, declined  the  position  of  clerk  in  the  counting-room,  that 
he  might  master  the  trade  in  his  father's  shop  as  a  regular 
apprentice,  where  he  learned  thoroughly  how  to  do  with  his 
own  hands  all  that  he  has  since  had  to  direct  others  in  doing. 
A.-  multitude  of  similar  facts  might  be  cited  to  show  that  the 
mastery  of  a  trade  is  one  of  the  best  preparations  for  practical 
life  and  prosperity  in  business.  Clerks  are  often  paid  less  than 
skillful  mechanics,  and  are  less  independent.  In  their  precari- 
ous positions  they  are  liable  to  disappointments  and  humilia- 


LABOR  AS   AN   EDUCATOR.  141 

ting  straggles  with  the  thousands  of  others  "looking  for  a 
place."  Every  advertisement  for  a  clerk  brings  a  swarm 
of  applicants.  How  pitiable  the  condition  of  this  super-abun- 
dance of  book-keepers  and  exchangers  wasting  their  lives  in 
"  waiting  for  a  place,"  while  our  factories,  railroads  and  trades 
are  clamoring  for  educated  superintendents,  foremen,  engineers, 
skillful  managers  and  "cunning  workmen."  The  position  of 
the  educated  and  well  trained  mechanic  is  far  preferable  to  that 
of  average  city  clerks.  The  latter  may  dress  better,  talk  more 
glibly,  bow  more  gracefully,  not  to  say  obsequiously,  but  they 
compare  unfavorabty  with  our  best  mechanics  in  manly  inde- 
pendence, vigor  of  thought  and  strength  of  character. 

Too  many  of  our  young  men  leave  the  homestead  on  adven- 
tures less  safe  and  reliable  than  the  arts  of  industry.  A  good 
trade  is  more  honorable  and  remunerative  than  peddling  maps, 
books,  pictures,  patent- rights  and  clothes  wringers,  or  in  a  city 
store  to  be  cash  or  errand  boy,  store-sweeper,  fire-kindler  and 
counter  jumper  generally.  Without  disparaging  the  useful  and 
honorable  position  of  the  clerk,  our  young  men  may  properly 
be  cautioned  against  further  crowding  this  already  "  plethoric 
profession."  To  the  boys  in  the  country  I  say,  instead  of 
aspiring  to  an  uncertain  and  precarious  clerkship,  stick  to  the 
farm  or  learn  a  trade,  and  you  will  lay  the  broadest  foundation 
for  prosperity,  Those  who  have  well  improved  the  opportuni- 
ties now  offered  in  our  Free  Schools,  can  afford  to  apprentice 
themselves  at  sixteen  years  of  age,  supplementing  their  educa- 
tion by  evening  schools,  or  by  self  training  in  their  evenings 
and  leisure  hours.  In  the  coming  struggles  for  material  pros- 
perity, he  will  win  who  can  best  wield  physical  forces.  Bacon 
well  says,  "  The  empire  of  man  over  material  things  has  for  its 
only  foundation  the  sciences  and  the  arts,  for  we  triumph  over 
nature  only  as  we  learn  to  obey  her  laws."  Promotion  and 
success  are  open  to  all  in  })roportion  as  they  master  this  lesson. 

The  superintendents  at  first  selected  for  the  large  manufac- 
turing corporations  in  this  country,  as  at  Lowell,  were  frequently 
professional  men,  often  practicing  lawyers.  But  experience 
long  since  led  to  a  regular  system  of  promotion.  "  Encourage 
merit,"  "  promote  from  the  ranks,"  are  now  the  mottoes.  The 
best  superintendents  of  these  large  concerns  a,re  now  those  who 

V^  OP  TEB^. 


142  LABOR  AS   AN   EDUCATOR. 

have  worked  themselves  up  from  the  humblest  positions,  who 
are  thoroughly  and  practically  familiar  with  all  the  processes 
and  details.  In  our  factories  every  room  has  its  foreman  and 
assistant  foreman.  These  overseers  are  now  selected  from  the 
workmen  by  reason  of  superior  education,  aptitude  and  industry. 
Many  conductors  and  some  superintendents  of  our  railroads 
began  as  brakemen.  A  prominent  member  of  Congress  passed 
from  farmer's  boy  to  stage  driver,  brakeman,  conductor,  super- 
intendent, and  finally  to  the  position  of  president  of  a  large 
railroad  in  New  England. 

The  following  facts  in  regard  to  the  early  history  of  some  of 
our  great  statesmen  are  furnished  to  me  by  one  of  our  most 
honored  civilians,  whose  life  happily  illustrates  the  same  princi- 
ple. Multitudes  have  gained  a  similar  promotion  from  the 
humblest  to  the  highest  positions. 

"  Yery  few  of  the  fathers  of  our  republic  were  the  inheritors 
of  distinction.  Washington  was  almost  the  only  gentleman  by 
right  of  birth  in  all  that  astonishing  company  of  thinkers  and 
actors.  Two  or  three  Virginians,  John  Jay,  of  New  York,  and 
half-a-dozen  inferior  men  from  other  provinces,  were  exceptions. 
But  Franklin  was  a  printer's  boy ;  Sherman  a  shoemaker ; 
Knox  a  book-binder ;  Grreen  a  blacksmith ;  John  Adams  and 
Marshall  the  sons  of  poor  farmers;  and  Hamilton,  the  most 
subtle,  fiery  and  electrical,  but  at  the  same  time  the  most 
orderly  genius  of  all,  excepting  the  unapproachable  chief,  was 
of  as  humble  parentage  as  the  rest,  and  himself,  at  the 
beginning,  a  shopkeeper.  And  if  we  come  down  to  a  later 
period,  Daniel  Webster  was  the  son  of  a  country  farmer,  and 
was  rescued  from  the  occupation  of  a  drover  only  by  the  shrewd 
observation  of  Christopher  Gore,  whom  he  called  upon  for  ad- 
vice in  respect  to  a  difficulty  arising  from  the  sale  of  a  pair  of 
steers ;  John  C.  Calhoun  was  the  son  of  a  tanner  and  currier ; 
the  father  of  Henry  Clay  belonged  to  the  poorer  class  of  Baptist 
ministers  ;  Martin  Yan  Buren,  during  the  fitful  leisure  of  the 
day,  gathered  pine  knots  to  light  his  evening  studies  ;  Thomas 
Corwin  was  a  wagoner  ;  Silas  Wright,  by  heritage,  a  machinist  5 
Lincoln,  Douglass  and  Stevens  were  farmer's  boys ;  and  many 
others  among  our  statesmen,  who  receive  the  applause  and  rever- 


LABOR  AS  AN   EDUCATOR.  148 

ence  of  mankind,  passed  their  earlier  years  in  the  practical 
school  of  labor." 

I  began  to  enumerate  the  inventors,  manufacturers  and  busi- 
ness men  of  Connecticut — now  our  men  of  wealth — who  were 
trained  on  the  farm  or  in  the  shops,  but  found  the  list  too  large 
for  publication.  It  would  comprise  most  of  the  successful  busi- 
ness men  of  the  State.  Those  who  despised  labor  and  aspired  to 
"  genteel  occupations"  in  their  youth,  have  not  been  the  bene- 
factors of  the  community,  nor  of  themselves. 

The  great  inventors  were  not  dandled  in  the  lap  of  affluence, 
nor  were  they  contemners  of  the  trades,  ambitious  of  "  elegant" 
employments.  They  were  "clad  not  in  silks  but  fustian,  and 
grimed  with  soot  and  oil."  In  the  language  of  Professor  Lyman, 
'*  The  artificers  and  inventors  of  the  world,  the  men  who  revo- 
lutionize human  industry  and  manifold  the  wealth  and  power 
of  nations  by  new  machines  and  new  processes  of  art — the 
Watts,  the  Arkwrights,  the  Bramahs,  the  Clements,  the  Nas- 
myths,  the  Stephensons,  the  Fairbairns,  the  Fultons,  the  Erics- 
sons, the  Goodyears,  the  Howes,  the  McCormicks,  have  usually 
had  their  training  in  the  shops." 


EDUCATION  AND  INDUSTEIAL  ARTS. 

The  industrial  interests  of  our  country  are  vital  to  its  pros- 
perity. We  are  a  working  people,  and  the  cause  of  the  work- 
man is  the  cause  of  all.  The  problem  of  our  day  is  to  elevate 
work  by  elevating  the  workman.  The  masses  are  learning  that 
mere  muscle  is  weak,  that  brains  help  the  hands  in  all  work, 
that  knowledge  multiplies  the  value  and  productive  power  of 
muscular  efforts.  If  knowledge  is  power,  ignorance  is  impo- 
tence. What  a  man  25,  stamps  an  impress  upon  what  he  does, 
even  in  the  humblest  forms  of  industry.  The  character  of  the 
work  depends  on  the  workman.  Whatever  elevates  the  laborer 
improves  his  labor.  In  proportion  as  you  degrade  the  opera- 
tive, you  depreciate  his  work.  The  wealth  and  welfare  of  indi- 
viduals and  communities  thus  dependent  on  labor,  can  be 
most  fully  secured  only  by  educated  labor.  You  can  dignify 
work  in  no  way  so  surely  as  by  educating  and  thus  elevating 
the  workman.  As  mind  triumphs  over  matter,  the  amount  of 
manual  labor  requisite  to  secure  equal  results  constantly  les- 
sens. The  invention  of  labor-saving  machinery,  though  tempo- 
rarily depreciating  the  hand  labor  thus  supplanted,  ultimately 
benefits  every  one. 

Eminent  physicists  are  successfully  applying  the  latest  re- 
searches of  science  to  the  industrial  arts.  Their  discoveries 
have  already  contributed  largely  to  our  material  prosperity,  and 
prove  that  the  future  improvement  of  the  mechanic  arts  depends 
on  brain  as  well  as  brawn, — on  the  substitution  of  physical 
forces  for  muscular  strength.  "  Subdue  the  earth,  and  have 
dominion  over  it,"  was  the  primeval  command.  The  progress 
of  civilization  has  always  been  commensurate  with  man's 
dominion  over  nature,  and  his  utilization  of  her  forces  and 
resources.  Science  has  not  only  built  our  railroads,  locomotives, 
steamships  and  telegraphs,  but  permeated  all  our  factories,  and 
rendered  labor  incomparably  more  productive.  To  give  one  or 
two    illustrations,  applications    of    chemistry  and  metallurgy 


EDUCATION   AND   INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  l4o 

have  made  the  din  of  industry  continuous  all  along  the  Nauga- 
tuck  Valley,  in  Connecticut,  from  Birmingham  to  Winsted. 
Electro-metallurgy  is  bringing  untold  wealth  to  Meriden,  Wal- 
lingford,  Hartford  and  New  Haven. 

During  my  connection  with  the  Board  of  Education  of 
Massachusetts,  the  Secretary,  Hon.  George  S.  Boutwell,  sent 
circulars  to  the  leading  corporations  of  the  State,  asking 
the  opinion  of  the  superintendents  as  to  the  relation  of  educa- 
tion to  wages,  the  relative  profitableness  of  employing  ignorant 
or  intelligent  laborers,  and  the  comparative  quality  of  the  work 
of  these  two  classes  of  operatives.  The  replies,  with  striking 
unanimity,  showed  that  ignorant  labor  was  always  expensive ; 
that  the  amount  and  quality  of  w^ork  performed  were  pro- 
portioned to  the  intelligence  of  the  laborers  ;  -'that  intelligent 
laborers  learn  more  readily,  are  more  skillful  when  learned,  are 
more  easily  controlled,  perform  more  as  well  as  better  work, 
require  less  looking  after,  keep  their  machines  cleaner  and  more 
judiciously  oiled,  incur  less  liability  to  breakage  of  machinery, 
less  waste  of  oil  and  of  stock.  As  a  general  rule  there  is  a 
higher  sense  of  moral  obligation,  and  more  honesty,  fidelity 
and  regard  for  the  interest  of  employers,  among  the  intelligent 
than  among  the  ignorant  laborers."  These  replies  showed  that 
among  a  large  number  of  persons,  and  upon  an  average,  "  trust- 
worthiness in  labor,  and  honesty  in  the  custody  of  property, 
are  proportioned  to  the  intelligence  of  the  operative." 

Education  favors  inventions  and  improvements  in  machin- 
ery. Intelligent  mechanics  are  continually  devising  improved 
methods  of  accomplishing  given  results.  In  a  very  large  lock 
establishment  in  Connecticut,  where  the  work  is  done  mostly 
by  the  piece  or  job,  so  constant  have  been  improvements  in 
the  processes  or  'machines,  that  the  workmen  have  for  some 
years  reduced  their  "  proposals"  in  the  annual  contracts,  with- 
out decreasing,  and  sometimes  increasing,  their  wages.  Kecent 
improvements  in  the  rapidity  of  the  processes  are  surprising. 
In  a  cotton  mill,  one  carder  can  now  do  the  work  which 
would  require  five  thousand  persons  by  hand.  Six  hundred 
of  the  old  hand  wheels  cannot  spin  as  much  yarn  in  a  day 
as  one  girl  can  produce  by  machinery.  In  Hindostan  a  man 
can  spin  one  hank  a  day ;  a  modern  spinner  with  his  mule  can 


146  EDUCATION  AND   INDUSTRIAL   ARTS. 

produce  3,000  hanks  in  the  same  time.  In  1807,  Boston  and 
Salem  merchants  imported  cotton  cloth  from  India ;  now,  mil- 
lions of  yards  are  exported  to  India  and  remote  parts  of  Asia. 
A  machine  recently  invented  is  turning  out  fish-hooks  in 
New  Haven  at  the  rate  of  62,000  a  day,  and  another  by  the 
same  ingenious  inventor  can  make  50,000  needles  a  day. 
Other  very  curious  inventions  of  his  are  saving  hand  labor 
in  the  ratio  of  five  hundred  or  even  a  thousand  to  one.  A 
thousand  men  in  the  old  English  style  could  hardly  make 
and  stick  as  many  pins  per  hour  as  one  boy  now  does  by 
machinery  ;  for  a  single  boy  can  "  tend"  an  indefinite  num- 
ber of  these  almost  thinking  automatons.  Within  less  than 
thirty  years,  mobs  of  laborers  have  destroyed  labor-saving 
machines,  or  resisted  their  introduction,  and  menaced  their 
proprietors.  Opposition  to  sewing  machines  and  steam  fire 
engines  is  not  yet  forgotten.  But  the  sewing  machine  is  a 
benefactor  of  the  needle  women.  It  has  already  made  the 
"  song  of  the  shirt"  obsolete,  and  helped  the  seamstress  to  earn 
far  more  than  she  ever  could  by  hand.  Such  machines,  by 
reducing  cost  and  increasing  production,  increase  also  the 
demand  for  labor,  as  well  as  its  efficiency  and  remuneration. 

The  Universal  Exposition  of  Industry  in  Paris  six  years  ago 
taught  some  bitter  but  profitable  lessons  to  the  English  Govern- 
ment and  people.  Prominent  among  the  six  causes  which  influ- 
enced Parliament  in  the  adoption  of  a  new  national  system  of 
education,  was  this  International  Exposition.  It  formed  a 
good  school  for  England,  and  through  England  for  all  Europe. 
The  investigations  instituted  by  Parliament  were  thorough  and 
conclusive.  The  epitome  of  that  Eeport  (given  below)  was 
circulated  widely  in  various  journals  on  the  continent,  and 
reached  Turkey,  China  and  Japan.  Perhaps  no  Report  of 
Parliament  attained  greater  celebrity  or  exerted  a  wider  and 
happier  influence.  It  was  accepted  as  a  demonstration  of  the 
influence  of  education  in  protnoting  individual  thrift  and  na- 
tional prosperity.  Even  English  reviews  and  newspapers,  and 
the  largest  and  most  intelligent  manufacturers,  were  compelled 
to  admit  that  Britain  fared  ill  in  that  comparison  of  the  world's 
industries.  This  was  an  unwelcome  surprise  to  the  nation. 
Her  superiority  to  all  the  world  in  manufactures  had  been  long 


EDUCATION  AND   INDUSTRIAL  ARTS.  147 

assumed  as  unquestioned.  The  most  keen-sighted  and  practi 
cal  British  observers  admitted  the  mortifying  fact  that  England 
was  surpassed,  either  relatively  or  absolutely,  by  her  Continen- 
tal rivals.  This  was  true,  not  in  a  few,  but  in  many  and  vari- 
ous branches  of  manufacturing  and  mechanical  industry.  There 
was  great  unanimity  in  this  view  on  the  part  of  those  English 
"Jurors"  and  observers  especially  appointed  to  examine  and 
report  the  results  of  their  observations. 

Professor  Tyndall  says :  "  England  will  be  outstripped  both 
in  the  arts  of  peace  and  war  by  the  Continental  nations,  in 
virtue  of  their  better  education."  Dr.  Lyon  Playfair,  a  juror 
in  the  Exhibition,  "  found  some  of  our  (British)  chief  mechani- 
cal and  civil  engineers  lamenting  the  want  of  progress  in  their 
industries,  and  pointing  to  the  wonderful  advances  which 
other  nations  were  making.  The  one  cause  upon  which  there 
was  most  unanimity  of  conviction  (among  British  manufactu- 
rers) is  that  France,  Prussia,  Austria,  Belgium  and  Switzerland 
poss^ess  good  systems  of  industrial  education  for  the  masters 
and  managers  of  factories  and  workshops,  and  that  England  pos- 
sesses none ;  "  he  also  found  British  chemical,  and  even  textile 
manufacturers  uttering  similar  complaints.  The  Rev.  Canon 
Norris,  an  inspciitor  of  schools,  found  evidence  at  the  Exposition 
that  "  in  all  that  tends  to  convert  the  mere  workman  into  the 
artisan^  Austria,  France  and  Prussia  were  clearly  passing  us." 
Mr.  Edward  Huth,  familiar  as  a  juror  and  otherwise  with  the 
Expositions  of  1851  and  1862,  as  well  as  with  that  of  1867,  says 
of  Great  Britain  :  "  We  no  longer  hold  that  preeminence  which 
was  accorded  to  us  in  the  Exhibition  of  1851."  He  fears 
especially  for  the  woolen  manufacturers  of  his  country.  Mr. 
James  E.  McConnell,  another  juror,  "made  a  very  careful  ex- 
amination and  comparison  of  British  locomotive  engines,  car- 
riages, railway  machinery,  apparatus  and  material,  with  the 
same  articles  exhibited  by  France,  Germany  and  Belgium,  and 
became  firmly  convinced  that  former  British  superiority  no 
longer  exists.  It  requires  no  skill  to  predict  that  unless  we 
adopt  a  system  of  technical  education  for  our  workmen  in 
this  country,  we  shall  soon  not  hold  our  own  in  cheapness  of 
cost  as  well  as  excellence  of  quality  of  our  mechanical  produc- 
tions."    Capt.  Frederick  Beaumont  says:  "There  can  be  no 


148  EDUCATION    AND    INDUSTRIAL   ARTS. 

doubt  as  to  the  immense  strides  which  foreign  mechanical 
engineering  has  lately  made,  by  which  France  and  Belgium  are 
rapidly  overtaking  the  industrial  power  of  Great  Britain." 

The  evidence  of  loss  of  prestige  for  British  manufactures  was 
too  clear  to  be  disputed.  Leading  men  and  journals  at  once 
discussed  the  cause.  There  was  general  unanimity  as  to  the 
fact  itself;  and  the  cause  was  found  to  be  the  absence  of 
technical  and  general  education  in  Grreat  Britain,  and  the  prev- 
alence of  both  on  the  Continent 

Says  Mr.  Huth:  "It  is  the  want  of  industrial  education  in 
this  country  which  prevents  our  manufacturers  from  making 
the  progress  which  other  nations  are  making.  Many  of  our 
workmen  have  no  education.  Their  education  is  superior. 
With  them  it  is  not  a  machine  that  works  a  machine^  hut  brains 
sit  at  the  loom  and  intelligence  stands  at  the  spinning -wheeV^  Mr. 
Mundella,  managing  partner  of  a  firm  employing  five  thousand 
work-people  in  the  manufacture  of  hosiery,  says  :  "  I  have  for 
five  years  been  increasingly  alarmed  for  our  industrial  suprem- 
acy, and  my  experience  of  the  Paris  Exhibition  has  only  con- 
firmed and  strengthened  my  fears.  Our  best  machines  are 
improved  on  in  France  and  Germany  by  men  who  have  had  the 
advantage  of  a  superior  industrial  education.  The  frightful 
ignorance  found  in  our  factories  is  disheartening.  The  English 
workman  is  gradually  losing  the  race,  through  the  superior  in- 
telligence which  foreign  governments  are  carefully  developing 
in  their  artisans.  The  contrast  between  the  work-people  of 
Saxony  and  England  is  most  humiliating :  [one  of  the  facto- 
ries of  Mr.  Mundella's  firm  is  in  Saxony.]  In  Saxony,  our 
manager,  an  Englishman  of  superior  intelligence,  has  never 
met,  in  seven  years,  with  a  workman  who  could  not  read  and 
write  well.  If  we  are  to  maintain  our  position  in  industrial 
competition,  we  must  secure  an  educational  system  equally 
effective  and  complete,  otherwise  we  shall  be  defeated,  and  gen- 
erations hence  shall  be  struggling  with  ignorance,  squalor,  pau- 
perism and  crime."  Mr.  James  Young  is  represented  as  tiie 
possessor  of  the  most  lucrative  establishment  of  one  branch  of 
practical  chemistry  in  the  world.  Originally  a  workman,  he 
learned  chemistry  and  natural  philosophy  and  other  subjects 
under  various  professors.     This  was  the  basis  of  his  fortune, 


EDUCATION   AND   INDUSTRIAL   ARTS.  149 

and  in  view  of  it  he  says  :  "  It  would  be  most  ungrateful  in  me 
if  I  did  not  recognize  the  importance  of  scientific  and  technical 
education  in  improving  and  advancing  manufactures."  In 
regard  to  the  Paris  Exhibition  he  says  that  "  the  rate  of  pro- 
gress of  other  nations  appeared  so  formidable  that  several  meet- 
ings of  jurors,  exhibitors  and  others,  took  place  at  the  Louvre 
Hotel  on  the  subject."  Mr.  J.  Scott  Eussell  made  a  collective 
expression  of  the  opinions  of  jurors  to  this  effect,  that  "the 
progress  of  the  leading  Continental  nations  in  the  last  sixteen 
years  since  the  first  Exhibition  of  1851,  has  been  remarkably 
greater  than  ours,  and  they  seem  to  exhibit  growing  skill  and 
progress  in  proportion  to  the  excellence  of  the  education  and 
training  they  give  to  their  manufacturing  population.  Some- 
thing must  be  done,  or  our  working  classes  will  be  grievously- 
wronged,  and  the  whole  nation  suffer.  In  the  race  we  are  no- 
where. Our  defeat  is  as  ignominious  and  as  disastrous  as  it  is 
possible  to  conceive.  The  mere  mechanical  workman  stands 
not  the  slighest  chance  witli  a  workman  of  cultivated  taste. 
On  the  Continent  the  young  artisans  are  distinguishing  them- 
selves and  their  countries  by  the  excellence  of  their  work,  the 
higher  quality  of  their  manufactured  materials,  the  economy  of 
their  execution,  and  the  beautifulness  of  their  designs.  Poor 
England,  standing  by  idle,  is  too  late.  Her  workingmen,  fore- 
men and  masters,  grown  up  uneducated,  cannot  now  be  edu- 
cated— are  too  old  to  learn.  We  have  lost  a  generation.  Whose 
was  the  fault?  whose  the  blame?  Why  did  not  our  statesmen 
and  aristocracy,  already  provided  with  special  universities  and 
schools  for  their  own  training,  foresee  that  our  trade  was  going 
away  to  more  skilled  nations,  and  warn  us  in  time?  The  con- 
trast between  England  and  Switzerland  is  this  :  England  spends 
more  than  five  times  as  much  on  pauperism  and  crime  as  she 
does  on  education,  and  Switzerland  spends  seven  times  as  much 
on  education  as  on  pauperism  and  crime." 

These  revelations  that  British  manufactures  were  losing 
ground  from  the  lack  of  proper  education  claimed  the  atten- 
tion of  Parliament,  and  accordingly  in  March,  1868,  a  select 
committee  of  nineteen  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  pro- 
visions for  giving  instruction  in  theoretical  and  applied  science 
to  the  industrial  classes.  That  committee  continued  in  session 
10 


150  EDUCATION"  AKB  INDUSTRIAL  ARTS. 

for  over  tbree  montlis,  sending  for  persons  and  j^apers  from  all 
parts  of  the  kingdom.  The  minutes  of  evidence  fill  nearly  500 
double  column  folio  pages.  The  epitome  of  their  conclusions 
given  below  has  an  important  lesson  for  us,  and  suggests  the 
practical  inquiry,  what  is  America  doing  for  technical  educa- 
tion ?  They  should  lead  us  to  foster  our  Schools  of  Agricul- 
ture and  Mechanic  Arts,  Industrial  and  Evening  Schools  for 
Mechanics  and  Apprentices,  and  to  introduce  drawing  and  prac- 
tical science  into  our  public  schools.  If  in  proportion  to  our 
area  and  population.  New  England  manufactures  now  hold  the 
foremost  place  in  this  country,  let  us  consider  that  fifteen  years 
ago,  the  same  preeminence  belonged  to  Great  Britain,  and  not 
forget  why  it  does  so  no  longer. 

Manufactures  constitute  to-day  the  leading  source  of  the 
growing  wealth  of  New  England,  and  for  its  future  increase  we 
must  look  mainly  to  them.  But  this  will  depend  on  the  skill 
of  our  artisans,  the  ingenuity  of  our  inventors,  and  the  con- 
sequent superiority  of  our  fabrics.  Connecticut  clocks,  for 
example,  command  the  market  of  the  world.  England  alone 
in  a  single  year  has  bought  160,000.  An  order  was  lately 
received  in  New  Haven  from  Birmingham,  England,  for 
800,000  fish-hooks.  Similar  orders  come  to  the  same  firm 
every  week  from  foreign  lands.  Seven  years  ago,  England  had 
a  monopoly  of  this  business  both  for  Europe  and  America. 
Two  Connecticut  firms  make  over  a  million  eyelets  or  paper- 
fasteners  daily.  A  multitude  of  similar  facts  might  be  cited 
where  the  cost  of  material  is  slight  and  skill  and  inventive  tal- 
ent make  the  process  easy  and  the  profits  large.  If  our  wares 
continue  to  be  better  and  cheaper,  we  gain  and  retain  the  mar- 
ket of  the  world ;  if  we  fail  to  progress,  we  shall  lose  it. 
How  to  maintain  our  manufactures  in  the  highest  perfection 
and  by  keeping  up  with  the  times  command  the  market,  is 
the  problem  for  us  to  solve.  Stagnation  or  mediocrity  here 
means  retrogression.  The  Committee  of  the  British  Parlia- 
ment say : 

"  The  industrial  system  of  the  present  age  is  based  on  the 
substitution  of  mechanical  for  animal  power ;  its  development 
is  due  in  this  country  to  its  stores  of  coal  and  metallic  ores,  to 
our  geographical  position  and  temperate  climate,  and  to  the 


EDUCATION   AND   INDUSTRIAL  ARTS,  151 

unrivaled  energy  of  our  population.  The  acquisition  of  scien- 
tific knowledge  has  been  shown  by  the  witnesses  to  be  only 
one  of  the  elements  of  an  industrial  education  and  of  indus- 
trial progress.  ITearly  every  witness  speaks  of  the  extraor- 
dinarily rapid  progress  of  continental  nations  in  manufactures, 
and  attributes  that  rapidity  not  to  the  model  workshops  which 
are  met  with  in  some  foreign  countries,  and  are  but  an  indif- 
ferent substitute  for  our  own  great  factories,  and  for  those 
which  are  rising  up  in  every  part  of  the  continent,  but, 
besides  other  causes,  to  the  scientific  training  of  the  proprie- 
tors and  managers  in  France,  Switzerland,  Belgium,  and  Ger- 
many, and  to  the  elementary  instruction  which  is  universal  among 
the  working  pojoulaiion  of  Switzerland  and  Germany y  My  limits 
permit  only  a  condensed  summary  of  the  more  important  con- 
clusions of  this  suggestive  report : 

"  1.  That  with  the  view  to  enable  the  working  class  to  benefit 
by  scientific  instruction,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
ef&cient  elementary  instruction  should  be  within  the  reach  of 
every  child. 

2.  That  unless  regular  attendance  of  the  children  for  a  suffi- 
cient period  can  be  obtained,  little  can  be  done  in  the  way  of 
their  scientific  instruction, 

3.  That  elementary  instruction  in  drawing,  in  physical  ge- 
ography, and  in  the  phenomena  of  nature,  should  be  given  in 
elementary  schools. 

4.  That  adult  science  classes,  though  of  great  use  to  artisans, 
to  foremen,  and  to  the  smaller  manufacturers,  cannot  provide 
all  the  scientific  instruction  which  those  should  possess  who 
are  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  important  industrial  under- 
takings. That  all  whose  necessities  do  not  oblige  them  to 
leave  school  before  the  age  of  fourteen,  should  receive  instruc- 
tion in  the  elements  of  science  as  part  of  their  general  edu- 
cation. 

5.  That  the  reorganization  of  secondary  instruction  and  the 
introduction  of  a  larger  amount  of  scientific  teaching  into 
secondary  schools  are  urgently  required,  and  ought  to  receive 
the  immediate  consideration  of  Parliament  and  of  the  country. 

6.  That  it  is  desirable  that  certain  endowed  schools  should 
be  selected  in  favorable  situations  for  the  purpose  of  being 


152  EDUCATION  AND   INDUSTKIAL   ARTS. 

reconstituted  as  science  schools,  having  in  view  the  special 
requirements  of  the  district;  so  that  the  children  of  every 
grade  may  be  able  to  rise  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest 
school. 

7.  That  the  managers  of  training  colleges  for  the  -teachers  of 
elementary  schools  should  give  special  attention  to  the  instruc- 
tion of  those  teachers  in  theoretical  and  applied  science,  where 
such  instruction  does  not  exist  already." 

This  Parliamentary  Eeport  is  a  remarkable  document.  The 
■abundance  of  her  coal  and  the  cheapness  of  labor  and  raw 
material,  confirmed  England  in  the  assumption  of  permanent 
preeminence  in  manufacturing.  This  report  has  dispelled  that 
■complacency.  It  convicts  the  government  of  the  fatal  blunder 
•of  neglecting  popular  education.  While  fostering  Cambridge 
and  Oxford  it  has  overlooked  the  masses.  Here  is  a  demon- 
stration of  the  bearing  of  popular  education  on  national  in- 
dustry. 

It  proves  that  education  is  economy  and  that  ignorance  means 
waste ;  that  the  skilled  workman  so  forecasts  and  plans  his 
work  that  every  blow  tells,  while  he  economizes  both  his 
strength  and  stock ;  that  even  in  the  humblest  labor  he  will 
do  more  work,  in  better  style,  with  less  damage  to  tools  or 
machinery,  than  the  boor  who  can  use  only  brute  muscle. 


EDUCATION  AND  INVENTION. 

On  this  subject  facts  furnish  the  most  convincing  arguments. 
The  educational  history  of  Connecticut  gives  a  demonstration 
of  the  influence  of  education  in  developing  inventive  talent. 
The  schools  of  Connecticut  were  once  the  best  in  this  country. 
The  founders  of  that  State  were  the  pioneers  in  the  great  move- 
ment of  popular  education.  Their  example  has  not  only  been 
a  power  in  this  land,  but  is  known  and  honored  in  all  Christen- 
dom. It  has  led  to  the  organization  of  other  and  even  better 
systems  in  the  newer  States.  The  text-books  of  those  times, 
even  those  published  in  Boston,  New  York  and  Philadelphia, 
lauded  the  Common  School  system  of  Connecticut  as  the  best 
in  the  country.  President  Porter,  in  his  Prize  Essay  on  Com- 
mon Schools,  says :  "  Connecticut  was  once  the  star  of  hope 
and  guidance  to  the  world.  She  was  the  first  to  enter  the  lists 
and  was  foremost  in  the  race."  These  expenditures  for  educa- 
cation  proved  to  be  wise  investments.  Up  to  1860,  Connecti- 
cut was  relatively  the  richest  State  in  the  Union.  With  poor 
soil,  little  mineral  wealth,  and  meager  natural  resources,  com- 
pared with  many  other  States,  universal  education  rendered  her 
varied  industries  the  most  productive.  In  visiting  the  towns 
of  this  State,  one  is  struck  with  the  number  and  kinds  of 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  the  endless  diversity  of 
their  fabrics,  varying  from  pins  and  needles  to  car  wheels  and 
cannons.  Yankee " notions  some  of  them  may  be  called,  but 
it  requires  ingenuity  and  skill  to  invent  and  make  them,  and 
"they  pay."  The  ingenuity  and  inventive  talent  of  Connecti- 
cut is  remarkable  and  unrivalled.  For  a  long  series  of  years, 
in  proportion  to  its  population,  this  State  has  taken  the  lead  in 
the  number,  variety  and  value  of  its  inventions,  as  is  proved  b}'' 
the  statistics  of  the  Patent  Office.  In  1867,  the  number  of 
patents  issued  to  citizens  of  Connecticut,  New  York  and  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  proportion  to  population  was  as  follows: 


154  EDUCATION  AND   INVENTION. 

To  citizens  of  Connecticut,         662,  being  one  to  each       695 

"         "         "   Massachusetts,  1,451,      "         '^     "      "         848 
''   New  York,       2,803,      "         "     "      "      1,382 

This  is  on  the  basis  of  the  census  of  1860,  and  the  proportion 
is  in  the  nearest  whole  numbers.  The  whole  number  of  patents 
granted  during  the  year  1867  was  12,301.  The  states  here 
named  are  the  ones  which  stood  highest  in  the  list  of  the  Patent 
Office. 

In  the  year  1871,  the  whole  number  of  patents  granted  to  the 
citizens  of  the  United  States  was  12,511,  and  in  part  as  follows : 


To  citizens  of  Connecticut,             667,  being 

one  to  each 

806 

"         "       "    Dist.  Columbia,       136       " 

970 

"         "       "    Massachusetts,      1,386       " 

1,051 

"         "       "    Ehode  Island,         184       " 

1,181 

"       '^    New  York,          2,954       ^' 

1,450 

"         ''       "    New  Jersey,            496       " 

1,827 

The  following  are  the  figures  for  1872. 

Connecticut,           648  patents  issued,  being  one  to  every 

829 

Massachusetts,     1,435       " 

li               u 

1,014 

Ehode  Island,         179       " 

u            a 

1,214 

New  Jersey,            682       " 

iL                c( 

1,328 

New  York,           3,079       " 

u            a 

1,423 

These  figures  fairly  illustrate  the  average  preeminence  of 
Connecticut  in  inventiveness,  and  clearly  show  the  pecuniary 
value  of  intelligence,  verifying  the  words  of  Burke:  "Taxes 
raised  for  purposes  of  education  are  like  vapors,  which  rise 
only  to  descend  again  in  fertilizing  showers  to  bless  and  beau- 
tify the  land." 

The  influence  of  public  schools  in  promoting  individual 
thrift  and  general  prosperity  is  well  shown  by  the  following 
statements  of  Gen.  John  Eaton,  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education : 

"  The  number  of  patents  issued  to  the  inhabitants  of  Arkan- 
sas was  one  to  every  37,267  persons,  while  in  Connecticut  there 
was  one  patent  issued  to  every  695  persons.  In  Arkansas 
there  are  sixteen  adults  unable  to  write  to  every  one  hundred 
inhabitants ;  in  Connecticut  there  are  four  adults  unable  to 


EDUCATION   AND   INVENTION.  155 

write  to  every  one  hundred  inhabitants.*  In  Arkansas  the 
receipts  of  internal  revenue  are  twentj-six  cents  and  nine  mills 
per  capita ;  in  Counecticut  the  receipts  are  two  dollars  and 
fifty-four  cents  per  capita.  In  Arkansas  there  resulted  during 
the  last  year  to  the  Post  Office  Department  a  dead  loss  of  over 
forty-iiiue  cents  for  each  inhabitant  of  the  State,  a  loss  in 
amount  almost  double  the  internal  revenue  receipts  from  the 
State !  In  Connecticut  their  accrued  a  net  profit  to  the  Post 
Office  Department  of  twenty-six  cents  per  capita.  In  Florida 
there  are  twenty- three  adults  unable  to  write  to  every  one  hun- 
dred inhabitants.  In  that  State  one  patent  was  issued  to  every 
81,291  inhabitants,  or  only  six  in  the  entire  State.  The  inter- 
nal revenue  collected  amounted  to  sixty-four  cents  per  capita 
of  the  entire  population.  From  that  State  the  Post  Office 
Department  suffered  a  loss  of  ninety-two  cents  per  capita. 
Contrast  this  with  California,  where  the  number  of  patents 
issued  was  one  to  every  2,422  inhabitants,  and  the  amount  of 
internal  revenue  collected  was  six  dollars  and  forty-three  cents 
per  capita !  But  in  California  there  are  only  four  adults  unable 
to  write  to  every  one  hundred  of  the  inhabitants.  In  Tennes- 
see twelve  adults  are  unable  to  read  and  write  to  every  one 
hundred  of  the  inhabitants,  and  the  State  pays  internal  revenue 
at  the  rate  of  sixty-nine  cents  per  capita  ;  while  Ohio,  in  which 
there  are  four  illiterate  adults  to  every  one  hundred  inhabitants, 
pays  five  dollars  and  sixty-eight  cents  internal  revenue  per 
capita." 

*  These  are  believed  to  be  of  foreign  origin. 


LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HAR- 
MONIZED. 

The  adjustment  of  labor  and  capital  is  one  of  the  pressing 
questions  of  the  age,  now  arresting  public  attention  more  than 
ever.  No  question  in  political  economy  touches  the  masses  so 
broadly  throughout  the  civilized  world.  The  difficulty  in- 
volved cannot  be  adjusted  by  force,  as  has  been  vainly  at- 
tempted in  some  European  countries,  nor  by  money  or  num- 
bers. It  will  nowhere  stay  settled  till  it  is  settled  rightly  on  a 
basis  which,  in  the  long  run  and  on  a  broad  scale,  will  secure 
the  highest  interests  of  both  parties.  Everything  possible 
should  be  done  to  ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  operative, 
hard  at  best.  No  one  thing  will  help  him  so  much  as  that 
schooling  which  awakens  hope  and  ambition  to  better  his  con- 
dition, to  improve  bimself  and  his  home  and  to  educate  his 
children. 

My  work  and  my  sympathies  are  much  with  the  laboring- 
classes.  A  desire  to  promote  their  true  interests,  as  well  as  the 
education  of  their  children,  has  led  me  often  to  discuss  the 
labor  question.  While  seeking  especially  to  help  the  working- 
men,  I  have  had  the  happiness  of  gaining  their  confidence  as 
well  as  that  of  our  manufacturers. 

It  has  long  been  both  my  duty  and  desire  to  care  for  neg- 
lected children.  For  this  purpose  I  have  visited  many  manu- 
factories in  different  parts  of  Connecticut.  As  the  supervision 
of  the  schooling  of  minors  employed  in  factories,  or  at  any 
service  in  Connecticut,  devolves  on  the  State  Board  of  Educa- 
tion, it  has  been  my  aim  to  watch  this  important  interest,  and 
confer  both  with  manufacturers  and  operatives  in  order  to 
secure  their  co-operation. 

Labor  is  both  superior  and  prior  to  capital,  and  alone  origin- 
ally produces  capital.  For  this  result,  labor  must  be  intelli- 
gent, and  brain-work  and  hand-work  co-operate.  Many  a  penni- 
less laborer,  by  industry,  intelligence  and  economy^  has  become 


LABOli  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HARMONIZED.      157 

an  independent  capitalist.  Our  most  successfal  manufacturers 
have  toiled  up  from  penury  to  affluence.  This  aspiration  and 
opportunity  are  open  to  all  who  are  educated  enough  to  combine 
skill  with  labor.  But  the  condition  and  opportunities  of  the 
laborer  improve  with  the  increase  of  industrial  capital,  which 
alwaj^s  befriends  labor  when  it  multiplies  the  opportunities  for 
education  and  profitable  employment.  The  chances  for  the 
laborer  in  this  country  are  far  better  than  they  were  sixty  years 
ago,  before  the  commencement  of  our  manufacturing  system, 
when  the  poor  slept  without  sheets.  Now  that  manufiacturers 
have  made  sheeting  five  times  cheaper,  and  more  than  doubled 
wages,  the  operative  has  sheets  and  shirts  as  white  as  his  em- 
ployers, and  the  children  of  both  attend  the  same  school. 

Parisian  Internationals  denounced  capital  as  the  enemy  of 
labor,  but  in  the  same  breath  they  boasted  that  it  was  the 
unaided  product  of  labor,  and  therefore  rightly  belonged  to 
its  producers,  whoever  may  be  the  legal  owners.  It  is  a  strik- 
ing fact  that  in  Paris  itself,  not  long  after  this  International  pro- 
clamation, nothing  but  the  capital  thus  attacked  kept  its  assail- 
ants from  starvation  during  the  siege,  when  production  ceased. 
Laws  and  unions,  strikes  and  communes  cannot  equalize  things 
in  their  nature  essentially  unequal ;  nor  put  the  infelicities  of 
ignorance  and  the  misfortunes  of  improvidence  and  indolence 
on  a  level  with  the  advantages  of  education,  industry  and  fore- 
thought. ''Equality  of  conditions,"  "property  is  robbery," 
was  the  mad  outcry  of  the  commune.  It  did  succeed  in  sweep- 
ing away  capital,  and  had  it  longer  held  sway,  it  would  have 
destroyed  also  the  motive  and  the  means  alike  for  the  future 
accumulation  and  protection  of  capital  and  introduced  that 
anarchy  which  is  fatal  to  all  culture  and  progress.  The  equality 
of  conditions  it  would  secure,  would  be  the  low  level  of  a  com- 
mon barbarism.  Inequalities  are  ordained  by  nature,  and  must 
continue  as  long  as  the  capacities  and  habits  of  men  differ. 
Even  to  enforce  equality  of  wages,  lessens  the  motives  to  in- 
dustry, skill  and  fidelity,  interferes  with  individual  liberty  and 
restrains  the  freedom  of  competition. 

If  capital  were  annihilated  to-morrow,  labor  would  suffer 
first  and  most.  Capital  and  labor  therefore  are  not  enemies. 
There  is  only  an  apparent  opposition  of  interests  which   van- 


158      LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HARMONIZED. 

ishes  on  a  careful  examination.  Instead  of  open  strikes  or 
smothered  jealousies,  dissolving  all  social  ties,  there  should  be 
kindness  and  sympathy  between  the  employer  and  the  em- 
ployed. There  should  be  no  impassable  gulf  between  the  rich 
and  the  poor,  no  tyranny  of  capital  over  labor,  nor  hostility 
and  hatred  of  labor  to  capital.  The  capitalist  should  fully 
know  the  wants  and  trials  of  the  laborer's  lot,  and  the  work- 
man should  understand  the  risks,  anxieties  and  conditions  of 
success  on  the  part  of  the  manufacturer.  There  should  be 
liberal  pay  on  the  one  side  and  fair  profits  on  the  other.  The 
interests  of  both  classes  are  bound  together.  If  either  one  is 
harmed,  the  other  must  ultimately  suffer.  Certainly  the  laborer 
cannot  long  suffer  in  health,  education  or  pay  without  harm  to 
the  employer,  and  large  losses  to  employers  inevitably  extend 
to  the  operatives.  They  are  copartners,  and  cannot  afford  to 
be  antagonists.  Capital  is  as  dependent  on  labor  as  labor  is  on 
capital,  and  only  as  both  work  in  harmony  can  the  highest 
good  of  each  be  secured.  There  is  need  of  mutual  considera- 
tion and  often  of  mutual  concession.  Wages  no  doubt  have 
been  too  low,  and  have  been  deservedly  raised.  In  the  long 
run  it  is  not  for  the  interest  of  the  operative  that  wages  should 
be  so  high  or  the  hours  of  labor  so  few  as  to  suddenly  or 
seriously  increase  the  cost,  and  thus  lesson  the  amount,  of  pro- 
duction. In  this  age  Commerce  is  a  great  equalizer.  Manu- 
facturing will  expand  wherever  it  can  be  carried  on  most  eco- 
nomically. With  present  facilities  of  exchange  and  intercom- 
munication, manufacturing  will  gravitate  to  those  lands  which 
furnish  the  best  facilities,  and  open  the  most  favorable  condi- 
tions for  production,  as  naturally  as  water  finds  its  level.  In 
the  industries  of  this  age,  not  states  only,  but  nations  are  rivals. 
The  late  strikes  in  New  York  city  drove  important  manufac- 
turing enterprises  to  other  cities  and  states,  and  thus  lessened 
the  demand  for  labor.  The  poor  are  often  the  greatest  sufferers 
when  capital  is  thus  withdrawn  and  industrial  enterprise  re- 
pressed. American  manufactories  are  now  increasing  in  num- 
ber, variety  and  value.  In  the  future  development  of  our 
resources,  certainly  in  the  Eastern  States,  we  must  look  largely 
to  them  for  the  retention  of  our  best  men  at  home,  and  the 
attraction  of  labor  from  abroad. 


LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HARMONIZED.      159 

The  simple  elements  of  political  economy  should  be  taught 
in  our  schools,  if  not  formally  from  text-books,  at  least  in 
oral  lessons.  The  few  principles  which  govern  supply  and 
demand,  cost  and  production,  profit  and  loss,  could  easily 
be  taught  without  interfering  with  the  prescribed  studies.  No 
mechanic  can  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  these  elementary  econo- 
mies. Our  youth  should  early  understand  that  labor  and  capi- 
tal are  inseparably  yoked  together.  Being  co-partners,  there 
should  always  be  a  fair  division  of  profits  between  them.  If 
each  can  but  understand  the  other,  the  folly  of  alienation  and 
conflict  will  be  seen.  The  outrages  sometimes  connected  with 
strikes  are  usually  the  acts  of  ignorant  men,  with  whom  brute 
force  seems  the  most  effective,  if  not  the  only  means  of  rectify- 
ing wrong.  Education  should  check  these  tendencies  to  vio- 
lence and  find  better  means  for  the  redress  of  injuries,  real,  or 
fancied.  It  is  the  testimony  of  those  who  have  the  widest  op- 
portunities of  observation,  that  the  educated  laborer  is  less  liable 
to  join  in  unreasonable  and  unseasonable  strikes,  not  only  be- 
cause they  drive  away  capital  and  ultimately  diminish  the 
demand  for  labor,  but  remembering  that  he  himself  is  a  con- 
sumer, he  may  not  wisely  set  an  example  which  would  tend  to 
a  general  enhancement  in  the  price  of  all  products  and  prove 
disastrous  to  all.  Education  becomes  more  essential  in  pro- 
portion as  our  manufacturing  processes  become  more  scientific. 
We  should  encourage  the  aspiration  of  working  men  to  better 
their  circumstances  and  rise  above  the  condition  of  drudges,  by 
making  labor  more  honorable  and  remunerative.  Already  the 
intelligent  American  mechanic  is  far  better  off  than  the  laborers 
of  Europe,  better  paid,  fed,  clothed,  housed,  better  appreciated 
and  better  situated  in  every  respect. 

I  can  best  illustrate  general  principles  by  citing  facts  com- 
ing under  my  observation  in  Connecticut.  In  many  of  our 
manufacturing  villages,  employers  have  allayed  prejudice  and 
disarmed  hostility  by  a  liberal  policy.  As  enlightened,  liberal, 
philanthropic  men,  they  have  generously  aided  both  the  school 
and  the  church,  provided  reading-rooms  and  lectures  for  the 
special  benefit  of  their  operatives,  and  erected  boarding  and 
tenement-houses  in  a  style  favorable  for  their  health  and  com- 
fort.    They   have  encouraged  the  purchase  of  homesteads  or 


160      LABOR  AND  CAPITAL  THEORETICALLY  HARMONIZED. 

erection  of  houses,  by  selling  land  and  loaning  a  large  percent- 
age of  the  cost  of  building  on  favorable  terms.  There  are 
many  thriving  manufacturing  villages  in  Connecticut  where  a 
strike,  or  anything  like  antagonism  of  labor  to  capital,  has 
never  been  known.  Instead  of  isolating  themselves  from  their 
operatives,  these  capitalists  have  treated  them  as  partners,  cast 
in  their  lot  with  them,  guarded  their  health,  provided  for  their 
material  comfort  and  intellectual  and  moral  welfare.  The  three 
Governors  of  Connecticut — Jewell,  English,  and  Buckingham 
— extensive  manufacturers,  have  each  illustrated  the  wisdom 
of  a  liberal  policy  toward  their  employees.  The  harmony 
and  good- will  thus  secured  have  proved  an  important  part  of 
their  effective  capital.  I  have  had  occasion  to  know  that  their 
workmen  feel  a  pride  in  their  service,  and  a  genuine  interest 
in  their  success  When  all  manufacturers  feel  it  to  be  their 
duty  and  interest  to  show  like  sympathy  and  interest  toward 
their  employees,  the  problem  of  harmonizing  labor  and  capital 
will  be  solved. 

It  is  a  significant  fact  that  in  referring  to  the  efficient  mea- 
sures adopted  for  the  schooling  of  minors  employed  in  factories 
or  at  any  service — measures  most  liberally  sustained  by  the 
manufacturers  of  the  state — Governor  Jewell,  in  his  message  in 
1871,  was  able  to  congratulate  the  Legislature  on  the  general 
good  feeling  between  employees  and  employers,  using  the  fol- 
lowing language  :  "  The  law  in  regard  to  minor  children  has 
worked  happily  and  has  been  wisely  administered  by  the  Board 
of  Education.  It  has  received  alike  the  sanction  of  operatives 
and  manufacturers.  While  strikes  and  strifes  between  capital 
and  labor,  injurious  alike  to  all  parties,  abound  in  other  states, 
'perfect  harmony  exists  here  between  employer  and  employed.^'' 
Substantially  the  same  language  might  have  been  truthfully 
used  in  each  succeeding  annual  message. 


LABOR  AND   CAPITAL  PRACTICALLY  HAR- 
MONIZED.^ 

How  to  harmonize  labor  and  capital  is  now  one  of  the  great 
questions  of  the  age.  Their  alienation  has  recently  caused  idle- 
ness, distress  and  crime  on  one  side,  and  lock-outs,  derange- 
ment of  business  and  enormous  losses  on  the  other.  Tbe  many 
millions  lately  lost  in  New  York  by  mistakes  on  this  question 
furnish  only  a  new  version  of  the  old  story  of  antagonisms 
between  those  who  should  be  partners.  The  Internationals  in 
session  this  week  at  the  Hague  have  raised  questions  which 
will  perplex  the  Emperors  of  Russia,  Austria*and  Germany,  in 
their  interviews  at  Berlin  next  week,  quite  as  much  as  Bis- 
mark's  "guarantee  for  the  peace  of  Europe."  My  interest  in 
the  practical  solution  of  this  hard  problem,  now  puzzling 
kings  and  peoples  through  the  civilized  world,  brought  me  to 
this  northeastern  corner  of  Vermont. 

Here  is  a  great  manufactory  of  scales,  by  far  the  largest 
establishment  of  the  kind  in  the  world,  employing  about  six 
hundred  men,  and  nearly  four  hundred  in  branch  departments 
elsewhere,  and  manufacturing  over  50,000  scales  annually. 
They  are  of  all  sorts  and  sizes — over  three  hundred  varieties — 
from  the  most  delicate  standard  of  the  druggist  or  banker,  to 
the  ponderous  hay,  railroad-car,  or  canal-boat  scales,  weighing 
600  tons  at  a  time.  They  are  adapted  to  the  standards  of  all 
nations,  and  marked  with  the  signs  of  each.  This  week  a  large 
invoice  was  sent  to  Japan,  and  for  a  long  time  they  have  been 
sold  in  China,  Australia,  India,  Persia,  Turkey,  Arabia  (where 
they  have  been  carried  on  mules'  or  camels'  backs),  in  the  Bar- 
bary  States,  Cape  Colony,  Sandwich  Islands,  all  the  South 
American  States,  and  still  more  largely  in  the  great  commercial 
nations  of  the  earth.  For  use  in  Europe,  India  and  South 
America,  the  larger  proportion  are  based  on  the  metric  system, 
which,  I  think,  ought  to  be  and  in  time  will  become  the  uni- 

*  This  article  was  written  as  a  letter  from  St.  Johnsbury,  Vermont,  for  the 
ChrisUan  Union. 


162        LABOR   AND    CAPITAL    PEACTICALLY   HARMONIZED. 

versal  system,  and  which  is  already  adopted  by  nearly 
350,000,000  of  the  world's  population.  The  Fairbanks  Com- 
pany are  helping  on  this  consummation.  Many  of  their  scales 
are  fitted  with  double  beams,  giving  both  the  common  and  the 
metric  standards,  thus  facilitating  the  comparison  and  use  of 
each.  The  yearly  sales  amount  to  about  $2,000,000,  and  the 
demand  is  rapidly  increasing.  The  business  was  never  so  pros- 
perous as  during  the  present  season. 

It  has  long  been  a  marvel  how  such  a  concern  could  be  made 
a  permanent  success  for  nearly  fifty  years  in  this  remote  corner 
of  Vermont,  so  far  from  tide- water;  with  heavy  and  expensive 
freightage,  the  items  of  coal  and  iron  being  yearly  about  10,000 
tons ;  with  numerous  other  supplies  from  Boston  or  New  York ; 
and  the  necessity  of  transporting  the  manufactured  products  to 
the  sea-board.  Throughout  New  England  the  tendency  of 
manufacturers  has  been  from  the  interior  to  the  sea-side.  The 
cost  of  transportation  has  led  them  to  abandon  old  sites  and 
water-privileges  far  inland  and  build  nearer  the  great  markets. 
For  this  reason,  though  they  must  there  run  by  steam  only, 
manufactories  are  multiplying  in  New  Haven  and  along  the 
shore  to  New  York  more  rapidly  than  elsewhere  in  Connecti- 
cut. But  in  St.  Johnsbury,  notwithstanding  these  great  disad- 
vantages, the  business  has  steadily  grown  and  become  a  success 
which,  in  view  of  the  difficulties  overcome,  is  unparalleled  in 
this  country. 

Now,  what  is  the  explanation  of  this  marvelous  prosperity  ? 
What  is  the  condition  of  the  workmen  ?  These  points  I  came 
here  to  investigate.  For  this  purpose  I  inspected  the  works, 
covering  ten  acres,  examined  the  processes,  talked  freely  with 
the  hands  as  well  as  with  the  owners  and  with  the  citizens  of 
St.  Johnsbury  not  connected  with  the  factory.  To  observe  the 
home-life  of  the  operatives  I  entered  their  houses  and  conversed 
with  their  families.  These  inquiries  brought  out  facts  and  in- 
ferences which  will,  I  think,  be  of  interest  and  use  alike  to 
employers  and  employed  generally. 

This  company  maintains  here  the  highest  reputation  for  in- 
tegrity. Many  names  honored  abroad  are  tarnished  at  home. 
Only  the  strictest  honesty  and  fair  dealing  can  stand  the  test  of 
daily  business  intercourse  with  hundreds  of  hands  for  nearly 


LABOR  AND   CAPITAL   PRACTICALLY   HARMONIZED.        163 

half  a  century.  "  They  do  everything  on  the  square,"  was,  in 
substance,  the  answer  of  many  citizens  and  workmen  to  my 
inquiries  on  this  point.  The  company  has  fairly  earned  and 
gained  the  confidence  of  their  men  and  of  this  entire  community, 
and  a  good  name  at  home  naturally  follows  them  everywhere. 
The  workmen  say  that  they  are  never  permitted  to  do  any 
sham-work,  even  for  the  most  distant  market.  To  quote  the 
pithy  phrases  of  the  men,  **no  shoddy  here,"  "no  veneering," 
"no  puttying."  The  "test  room  "  illustrates  the  thoroughness 
of  their  work.  To  avoid  jar  of  machinery  or  movements  of  the 
air,  all  the  scales  are  subjected  to  the  nicest  tests  before  being 
"sealed."  The  minutest  films  of  metal  are  used  for  the  more 
delicate  trials.  Masses  of  iron  weighing  hundreds  of  pounds 
are  placed  alternately  on  the  diflPerent  corners  of  the  railroad 
scale  platform,  and  if  the  difference  in  position  changes  the 
"  record,"  the  scale  is  condemned.  The  thoroughness  of  the 
work  and  this  severity  of  the  test  is  the  explanation  of  the 
world-wide  reputation  of  the  Fairbanks'  scales  for  accuracy. 
At  the  bottom  of  a  chest  of  Japan  tea,  bought  in  New  York 
and  retailed  in  St.  Johnsbury  this  month,  was  the  following 
printed  statement  over  the  signature  of  the  Yokahama  tea 
merchant :  "  This  chest  contains  forty-eight  pounds  of  tea,  as 
weighed  by  Fairbanks'  scales.  We  warrant  this  tea  to  be  free 
from  any  artificial  coloring."  It  was  a  pleasant  coincidence 
that  this  slip  should  come  to  a  St  Johnsbury  store,  though  it 
has  long  been  known  that  "Fairbanks"  was  the  recognized 
standard  for  tea-packing  in  China  as  well  as  Japan.  Indeed, 
their  scales  have  done  more  to  correct  the  standards,  and  secure 
both  uniformity  and  accuracy  in  the  weights  of  the  world,  than 
all  the  other  agencies  combined. 

There  is  a  superior  class  of  workmen  in  this  establishment 
All  are  males.  Their  work  is  proof  of  skill.  Their  looks  and 
conversation  indicate  intelligence.  They  are  mostl}^  Americans, 
and  come  from  the  surrounding  towns.  More  than  half  of  them 
are  married,  and  settled  here  as  permanent  residents,  interested 
in  the  schools  and  in  all  that  relates  to  the  prosperity  of  the 
place.  Many  of  them  own  their  houses,  with  spacious  grounds 
for  yard  and  garden,  and  often  a  bam  for  the  poultry  and  cow. 
These  houses  are  pleasing  in  their  exterior,  neatly  furnished, 


164       LABOR   AND   CAPITAL   PRACTICALLY   HARMONIZED. 

and  many  of  tbem  supplied  with  pianos  and  tapestry  carpets. 
How  different  from  the  nomadic  factory  population,  swarming 
from  Canada  and  from  other  lands  to  densely  crowded  tenement 
houses,  who  never  bind  themselves  to  civilization  by  a  home, 
much  less  by  a  house  of  their  own !  The  tenement  houses, 
also,  are  inviting  and  comfortable,  and  surrounded  with  un- 
usually large  grounds.  The  town  is  managed  on  temperance 
principles,  and  drunkenness,  disorder  and  strife  among  the 
hands  are  almost  unknown.  Most  of  them  are  church-goers, 
many  of  them  church  members. 

I  examined  the  pay-roll  and  found  the  wages  very  liberal. 
The  workmen  seem  well  satisfied  on  that  score.  Wherever  it 
is  possible,  the  work  is  paid  for  by  the  piece.  The  work  itself 
is  largely  done  by  machinery  and  that  sui.  generis,  invented  here 
and  for  the  special  and  peculiar  results  here  reached.  The  men 
are  encouraged  to  expedite  their  processes  by  new  inventions 
and  share  largely  in  the  benefits  of  all  such  improvements.  I 
conversed  with  one  of  the  hands  who  invented  a  curious  ap- 
pai  atus  by  which  he  marks  a  hundred  register- bars  with  greater 
accuracy  and  in  but  little  more  time  than  he  could  formerly  do 
one.  He  now  finds  working  by  the  job  especially  profitable. 
Paying  by  the  piece  has  worked  well  hera  The  men  say  it  is 
fairer  to  pay  for  results  xhan  by  hours.  The  worth  of  labor 
depends  upon  its  products.  This  plan  stimulates  industry, 
promotes  skill,  and  fosters  inventiveness.  It  apportions  rewards 
to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  work  done.  But  more  than  all, 
this  plan  is  recognized  by  the  men  as  just  and  satisfactory. 
With  the  time  left  practically  to  their  own  choice,  there  is  no 
eight-hour  movement  here.  No  "  Labor  League "  or  Union 
has  ever  existed — no  strike  ever  been  suggested.  This  would 
be  a  poor  place  for  the  Internationals  to  preach  the  gospel  of 
idleness  or  agrarianism.  Imagine  one  of  these  delegates  just 
arrived  at  St.  Johnsbury  and  beginning  his  arguments  for  a 

strike  with  Mr.  ,  w^hose  house  I  visited.     I  fancy  him 

replying  somewhat  as  he  did  to  my  inquiry.  "  Why  is  it  you 
never  have  any  strikes  here  ?  "  "  Well,  we  have  a  good  set  of 
men  to  start  with — temperate  and  moral.  Then  we  are  well 
paid.  Wages  have  often  been  advanced.  The  owners  take  an 
interest  in  the  men.     They  are  liberal  and  public  spirited,  and 


LABOK   AND    CAPITAL   PKACTICALLY   HARMONIZED.        165 

are  doing  a  great  deal  for  the  place,  and  we  feel  an  interest  in 
the  success  of  the  concern  which  has  been  the  making  of  St. 
lohnsbury." 

There  has  evidently  been  mutual  sympathy  and  interest  be- 
tween employer  and  employed.  Governor  Fairbanks  used  to 
say  to  the  men,  "You  should  always  come  to  me  as  to  a 
father."  He  maintained  relations  of  kindness  with  them,  visit- 
ing the  sick,  helping  the  needy,  counseling  the  erring,  en- 
couraging their  thrift,  enjoining  habits  of  economy.  He  taught 
them  that  it  was  their  interest  and  duty  to  "  lay  up  something 
every  month,"  and  that  the  best  way  to  rise  in  the  social  scale 
was  to  unite  economy  with  increasing  wages.  He  himself  both 
preached  and  practiced  economy.  He  was  a  conspicuous  ex- 
ample at  once  of  strict  frugality  and  princely  liberality.  His 
benefactions  were  munificent,  both  at  home  and  abroad.  The 
fact  that  so  many  of  the  workmen  are  "  fore-handed,"  besides 
owning  their  homesteads,  is  due  to  his  teaching  and  example. 
The  worth  and  dignity  of  work  he  illustrated  in  theory  and 
practice.  The  notion  that  labor  was  menial,  or  that  the  tools 
of  a  trade  were  badges  of  servility,  he  despised.  His  sons 
worked  in  the  shop  and  thoroughly  learned  the  trade.  The 
brothers  of  the  Governor  were  in  full  sympathy  with  him, 
and  the  same  spirit  characterizes  the  sons  and  the  surviving 
brother  who  now  manage  the  concern.  There  is  still  the  fullest 
and  happiest  conciliation  between  labor  and  capital.  It  is  not 
strange  that  the  workmen  •'  hold  on."  Their  permanency  is  a 
striking  fact.  Many  have  been  here  from  twenty  to  forty 
years.  I  conversed  with  one  man  over  seventy  years  of  age 
— a  foreman — who  has  worked  here  "  from  the  start,"  forty- 
three  years.  A  few  months  since  he  tendered  his  resignation  on 
account  of  the  infirmities  of  age.  "  I  can't  earn  my  salary 
now."  Mr.  Franklin  Fairbanks  replied  to  him,  "No,  sir;  we 
cannot  accept  your  resignation.  Work  more  or  less,  as  you 
are  able.  Rest  when  you  please.  I  learned  my  trade  of  you, 
and  wish  you  to  continue  in  our  service  and  draw  your  pay  as 
long  as  you  live." 

Years  ago  the  men  were  aided  in  forming  and  sustaining  a 
Lyceum,  and  liberal  prizes  were  offered  for  the  best  essays  read. 
Recently,  Horace  Fairbanks  has  founded  a  library,  and  opened 
11 


166       LABOK   AND   CAPITAL   PRACTICALLY   HARMONIZED. 

a  large  reading-room  free  to  all.  The  AtheDseum  containing 
the  library,  reading-room,  and  also  a  spacious  lecture-hall,  is 
an  elegant  structure,  95  by  40  feet,  two  stories  high.  The 
books,  now  numbering  8,800,  are  choice  and  costly.  Though 
recently  opened,  over  one  thousand  "  takers  "  have  registered 
their  names :  230  volumes  have  been  drawn  in  a  single  day. 
In  the  reading-room,  besides  a  good  supply  of  American  peri- 
odicals, daily,  weekly  and  quarterly,  I  noticed  on  the  tables 
many  European  journals,  including  four  English  quarterlies, 
six  London  weeklies  and  ten  monthlies.  The  library  and  read- 
ing-room are  open  every  week-day  and  evening,  except  Wed- 
nesday evening,  when  all  are  invited  to  attend  the  weekly 
"lecture"  which  is  held  at  the  same  hour  in  all  the  churches. 
Having  visited  nearly  every  town  of  Massachusetts  and  Con- 
necticut, and  traveled  widely  in  this  country  and  in  Europe, 
I  have  nowhere  found  in  a  village  of  this  size  an  Athenaeum 
so  costly,  a  reading-room  so  inviting,  and  a  library  so  choice 
and  excellent  as  this.  W.  F.  Poole,  the  bibliographer,  aided 
in  the  selection  of  the  books. 

A  large  addition  to  the  Athenaeum  is  now  going  up,  37  feet 
by  26,  besides  two  very  large  "  bays  "  for  an  Art  Gallery,  being 
lighted  only  from  the  dome.  One  room  is  to  be  appropriated 
to  sculpture  and  the  rest  to  paintings. 

Thaddeus  Fairbanks,  one  of  the  three  founders  of  the  scale 
factory,  and  who  still  survives,  has  liberally  endowed  an  acad- 
emy which  already  has  o^^er  one  hundred  pupils.  A  new 
academic  hall  and  a  large  dormitory  are  now  building.  This 
promises  to  become  the  "  Williston  Seminary  "  for  northeastern 
Vermont,  furnishing  to  the  ambitious  youth  of  this  State  the 
best  academic  advantages  at  the  lowest  cost.  There  is  also 
a  free  High  School  and  a  good  system  of  Public  Schools. 

These  various  provisions  for  the  improvement,  happiness 
and  prosperity  of  this  people,  coupled  with  liberality  and  fair- 
ness in  daily  business  intercourse,  explain  the  absence  of  dis- 
content and  alienation,  and  the  uniform  sympathy,  good  feel- 
ing and  harmony  which  prevail. 

I  have  nowhere  seen  a  better  practical  solution  of  the  Labor 
Question. 


AKBITRATION  AND  CONCILIATIOISr. 

In  England,  no  one  plan  has  tended  so  widely  to  promote 
harmony  between  labor  and  capital  as  that  of  Boards  of  Arbi- 
tration and  Conciliation,  originated  by  A.  J.  Mundella,  M.P., 
some  twelve  years  ago.  After  careful  inquiry  among  the  labor- 
ing classes  as  to  the  working  of  this  system,  its  wisdom  and 
efficiency  seem  to  be  clearly  established.  It  has  nowhere 
failed.  Though  introduced  in  the  face  of  much  opposition,  it 
holds  all  the  ground  gained.  It  stands  the  test  of  experience. 
Had  it  been  adopted  three  years  ago  in  New  York  city,  it 
would  have  prevented  a  most  disastrous  strike  and  saved  mil- 
lions of  money  to  our  laborers  as  well  as  manufacturers.  It 
would  have  prevented  the  alienati(ms,  jealousies,  and  conflicts 
which,  in  the  long  run,  are  more  disastrous  to  society  than  the 
pecuniary  loss.  A  detailed  account  of  this  plan  and  its  work- 
ings, mainly  as  given  me  by  the  author,  will  be  timely.  If 
adopted  here,  it  will  aid  in  solving  the  perplexing  question  of 
harmonizing  labor  and  capital.  It  will  practically  demonstrate 
that,  instead  of  being  natural  enemies,  the  interests  of  both 
parties  are  practically  one,  and  that  each  is  alike  concerned  in 
the  success  of  the  other. 

Before  his  election  to  Parliament,  Mr.  Mundella  was  the 
managing  partner  of  a  firm  in  the  city  of  Nottingham,  employ- 
ing five  thousand  operatives  in  the  manufacture  of  hosiery. 
By  his  invitation,  I  visited  this  extensive  factory,  and  attended 
the  National  Trades'  Union  Congress,  held  in  Nottingham  for 
the  week  beginning  January  8th.  The  Mayor  anjd  city  author- 
ities gave  the  delegates,  numbering  about  one  hundred,  an  ele- 
gant dinner,  on  Monday  evening.  On  Wednesday  morning, 
four  members  of  Parliament — Mr.  Mundella,  Mr.  Samuel  Mor- 
ley,  Mr.  C.  Seeley,  and  Mr.  Auberon  Herbert, — gave  the  Con- 
gress a  handsome  breakfast,  and  on  Thursday  evening  a  supper. 
Such  hospitalities  promoted  conciliation  and  good  feeling. 
These  members  of  Parliament  and  "  the  American  gentleman'' 


168  ARBITRATION  AND   CONCILIATION. 

were  made  hoDorary  members,  and  all  took  part  in  the  discus- 
sions. Their  counsels  were  received  with  special  interest.  Mr. 
Morley  was  enthusiastically  applauded  when  he  said  that 
among  them  he  was  ''  sanguine  that  the  days  of  strikes  were 
ended  ;"  and  also  when  he  urged  them  "  to  consider  their  ohli- 
gaiions  and  duties  as  well  as  their  rights,  and  to  husband  their 
resources,  to  recognize  their  duties  to  themselves,  their  families, 
to  society  and  to  Grod."  One  of  the  delegates,  Mr.  Guile, 
emphasized  the  remark  of  Mr.  Morley,  that  "  they  had  duties  to 
perform  as  well  as  rights  to  expect ;  that  they  had  not  only  to 
ask,  but  to  give ;  not  only  to  seek,  but  to  render  unto  all,  that 
justice  which  they  themselves  expected."  He  said  "  this  visit 
of  our  Congress  to  Nottingham  has  done  more  to  bring  the 
different  and  too  often  hostile  classes  together  than  anything 
else  that  has  transpired  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  Had  em- 
ployers formerly  met  us  in  this  way,  as  men,  as  breth- 
ren, instead  of  as  master  meeting  slave,  strikes  would  not  have 
so  marred  our  fair  land." 

Instead  of  the  indifference,  not  to  say  aversion  and  suspicion, 
too  common  towards  them  in  America,  I  could  not  but  wish 
that  our  Trades  Unions  might  have  the  benefit  of  as  wise  and 
experienced  advisers,  and  as  genuine  tokens  of  sympathy. 
The  point  which  interested  me  most  was  the  general  approval 
which  the  members  of  this  body  gave  to  Mr.  Mundella's  plan 
of  arbitration.  I  was  repeatedly  assured  that  no  strikes  have 
anywhere  occurred  where  this  plan  has  been  adopted.  As 
proof  of  its  success,  the  Board  of  Arbitration  in  the  great 
manufacturing  city  of  Nottingham  say : 

''  During  the  eleven  years  of  its  existence,  no  strike  or  lock- 
out has  taken  place,  no  personal  attacks  have  been  made,  and 
no  inflammatory  handbills  circulated.  Never  in  the  history  of 
the  trade  has  there  existed  so  much  good  feeling  betwixt  em- 
ployers and  employed  as  at  the  present  moment.  And  during 
the  years  when  labor  has  been  scarce,  and  agitation  on  the 
question  of  wages  prevalent  throughout  England,  the  manu- 
facturers who  have  adopted  this  plan  of  arbitration  and  con- 
ciliation have  been  able  to  accept  contracts  without  apprehen- 
sion and  execute  them  without  delav." 


ARBITEATION   AND   CONCILIATION.  169 

The  plan  was  first  tried  among  the  hosiery  manufacturers 
and  operatives  centering  in  the  counties  of  Nottingham,  Leices- 
ter, and  Derby.  Perhaps  no  other  trade  in  England  has  for 
nearly  a  century  experienced  so  much  disturbance  and  aliena- 
tion as  this.  Time  had  increased  the  irritation.  The  griev- 
ances of  the  past  embittered  those  of  the  present.  Strikes  had 
been  numerous  and  prolonged,  often  disastrous  to  both  parties, 
and  sometimes  leading  to  fatal  consequences.  Lock-outs  fol- 
lowed strikes ;  work  stopped ;  the  streets  were  thronged  with 
idlers.  The  innocent  sufl'ered  with  the  guilty.  Destitution  at 
home  and  a  sense  of  injury  emboldened  some  to  despera- 
tion. The  system  of  employing  "  middle  masters  "  led  to  great 
abuse,  and  the  cupidity  of  these  employees  at  times  occasioned 
gross  oppression.  The  grievances  of  the  workmen  were  real, 
even  though  their  demands  were  often  extravagant  Strikes 
seemed  their  chief  means  of  redress.  These  were  aggravated 
by  occasional  "  frame-breaking,"  burning  in  effigy,  abusive 
personalities,  and  inflammatory  placards. 

Capital  and  labor  alike  suffered  from  these  conflicts.  By 
reason  of  sharp  competition  with  foreigTi  manufacturers,  espe- 
cially with  the  cheap  labor  of  Saxony,  strikes  crippled  the 
capitalists  and  then  brought  distress  to  the  operatives.  During 
1860,  there  were  four  strikes  in  the  wide  frame  branch  alone. 
The  manufacturers  of  Nottingham  and  vicinity  held  a  meeting 
to  devise  means  to  terminate  the  conflict.  As  the  other 
branches  contributed  to  the  support  of  the  strikers,  a  lock-out 
was  proposed.  Before  resorting  to  such  an  extreme  course,  Mr. 
Mundella  proposed  that  conciliatory  measures  be  tried,  and  that 
a  friendly  conference  be  held  with  the  operatives.  He  was 
authorized  to  consult  with  them.  A  favorite  with  the  masses, 
recognized  as  a  man  of  philanthropic  character,  his  invitation 
was  cheerfull}^  accepted,  and  a  committee  of  employers  and 
workmen  soon  met,  and  after  a  protracted  but  friendly  discus- 
sion^ occupying  several  days,  all  difficulties  were  adjusted  and 
a  Board  of  Arbitration  and  Conciliation  was  formed.  This 
Board  met  for  the  first  time  on  the  third  of  December,  I860, 
in  the  most  attractive  of  the  rooms  of  the  Chamber  of  Com- 
merce, in  Nottingham,  where  its  sessions  are  still  held.  The 
Board  consisted  of  nine  representatives  chosen  by  the  Manu- 


170  AEBITRATION   AND   CONCILIATION. 

facturers,  and  the  same  number  selected  by  the  operatives  in 
the  Trades  Unions. 

One  of.  the  first  questions  considered  was  the  abominable 
practice  of  "the  truck  system."  Some  of  "the  middle  mas- 
ters," though  nominally  giving  regulation  prices,  defrauded 
their  hands  by  "  store-pay,"  advancing  groceries  and  provisions 
at  high  rates.  These  goods  were  poor  as  well  as  dear.  This 
system,  though  illegal,  had  proved  dif&cult  of  suppression.  It 
was  carried  on  indirectly  or  through  third  parties  with  whom 
the  employers  had  a  secret  interest.  The  Board  advertised  in 
the  newspapers  their  determination  to  prosecute  the  offenders, 
and  the  manufacturers  agreed  to  take  all  machinery  from  them. 
One  prosecution  was  instituted,  and  now  this  oppressive  sys- 
tem has  been  entirely  stopped  wherever  these  Boards  are  estab- 
lished. The  custom  of  "  paying  off"  at  late  hours  on  Saturday 
night  when  no  markets  were  available  has  also  been  stopped. 
The  Board  publicly  condemned  this  practice  in  the  papers,  and 
personally  or  by  letter  remonstrated  with  offenders,  and  that 
checked  the  evil. 

When  first  formed,  the  Board  was  generally  considered  a 
doubtful  experiment.  Some  manufacturers  were  openly  hostile, 
while  "Utopian,"  "impracticable,"  " inquisitorial,  pry mg  into 
the  secrets  of  our  business,"  "  derogatory  to  our  independence," 
were  the  varying  epithets  of  others.  These  objections  have 
been  satisfactorily  answered  by  experience,  and  the  resolutions 
of  this  Board  are  responded  to  by  both  masters  and  workmen. 

The  discussions  of  the  Board  have  alwaj^s  been  conducted  in 
the  most  friendly  spirit.  There  never  has  been  the  slightest 
contention  as  to  who  should  fill  the  office  of  President  or  Yice- 
President.  Questions  of  wages,  methods  of  work,  sources  of 
profit,  laws  of  trade,  of  supply  and  demand,  of  home  and 
foreign  competition,  the  trials  of  the  workmen  and  risks  of  the 
capitalist,  are  fully  discussed.  Whenever  any  breach  of 
economic  laws  has  been  suggested  by  workmen  outside  the 
Board,  the  operative  delegates  have  promptly  denounced  it, 
while  on  both  sides  there  has  been  the  utmost  freedom  of 
speech.  No  manufacturer  or  workman  has  ever  been  known 
to  suffer  from  the  free  expression  of  his  views. 


ARBITRATION  AND   CONCILIATION.  171 

By  this  interchange  of  thought,  the  workman  becomes  better 
acquainted  with  the  laws  which  govern  production  and  trade, 
and  with  the  influence  of  foreign  competition  ;  and  the  master 
learns  better  how  to  appreciate  the  difficulties  and  straggles  of 
the  workmen.  A  Committee  of  Inquiry  investigates  all  com- 
plaints, and  by  a  spirit  of  justice  and  conciliation,  nine-tenths 
of  the  questions,  which  if  allowed  to  go  on  would  produce 
irritation  and  conflict,  are  thus  amicably  and  promptly  settled. 
Questions  which  this  Committee  cannot  adjust  are  referred  to 
the  full  Board.  In  former  times  strikes  had  proved  equally 
injurious  to  the  workmen  and  capitalists.  The  workers  suffered 
as  well  as  the  strikers,  by  reason  of  the  contributions  levied 
upon  the  former  to  sustain  the  latter.  This  levy,  often  forty 
cents  a  week  from  the  scanty  earnings  of  the  stocking-maker 
and  continued  sometimes  for  months,  was  paid  by  pawning 
clothes  and  furniture  and  at  the  cost  of  domestic  comfort,  if  not 
the  necessaries  of  life.  At  present  the  annual  contribution  to 
the  Trades  Union  for  a  whole  year  does  not  exceed  that  of  a 
single  week  under  the  old  system.  The  manufacturers  no 
longer  regard  these  Unions  as  their  natural  enemies. 

These  results  of  this  system  of  Mr.  Mundella  should  com- 
mend it  to  the  favorable  consideration  of  all  parties  concerned. 
While  it  may  not  be  a  panacea  for  all  the  ills  of  labor  and 
capital,  it  has  cured  the  worst  cases  in  England,  where  its  ap- 
plication is  now  extensive.  Good  as  a  curative,  it  is  better  still 
as  a  preventive. 

The  important  subject  of  Industrial  Partnerships  and  Co- 
operation will  be  discussed  in  another  volume.  These  plans 
have  been  more  fully  tried  in  England  and  Germany  than  in 
this  country.  The  first  method— capitalists  allowing  their 
workmen  a  certain  share  of  the  profits — is  already  successfully 
illustrated  in  America. 


APPENDIX 


SHOULD  AMERICAN  YOUTH  BE  EDUCATED 

ABROAD? 

LETTER  FROM  J.   P.   THOMPSON,   D.D. 

Berlin^  July^  1873. 
The  laudation  of  the  German  system  of  training  has  not  been 
without  reason,  in  former  times.  The  distinctive  features  of 
this  system  are,  minuteness  and  accuracy  of  detail  in  the  foun- 
dations of  every  study,  patience  and  thoroughness  of  investiga- 
tion in  the  pursuit  of  particular  branches,  familiarity  with  the 
subject  through  iteration,  examination,  discussion  and  review, 
and  the  discipline  of  the  memory  to  a  ready  command  of  the 
materials  of  knowledge.  There  can  be  no  question  that  the 
method  of  teaching  Latin,  for  instance,  by  constant  drilling  in 
the  principles  of  the  grammar,  by  oral  and  written  translation 
from  German  into  Latin,  by  composition  in  Latin  prose  and 
verse,  by  lectures  given  in  Latin  and  followed  by  extempora- 
neous exercises  from  the  students  in  the  same  tongue — that 
such  training,  begun  in  childhood  and  pursued  for  ten  years, 
gives  to  the  German  student  a  facility  in  Latin  quotation, 
speech,  and  writing,  not  common  to  the  graduate  of  an  Ameri- 
can college.  The  German  feels  at  home  in  his  Latin  and  Greek, 
so  that  he  takes  pleasure  in  keeping  up  his  acquaintance  with 
classic  authors.  I  happen  to  know  of  several  little  circles  in 
Berlin,  in  which  gentlemen  of  official  standing,  judges,  secre- 
taries, generals,  etc.,  find  recreation  in  a  weekly  reunion  for 
reading  Horace,  Plautus,  Terence,  Homer,  Plato,  Tacitus,  Thu- 
cydides  and  also  the  more  fragmentary  classics  in  the  original, 
and  I  have  been  surprised  at  the  facility  with  which  one  and 


APPENDIX.  173 

another,  without  special  preparation,  would  comment  upon  crit- 
ical niceties  of  the  text  or  peculiarities  of  usage  or  construction. 
But  there  are  such  clubs  also  in  Boston  and  New  York,  and 
the  method  of  teaching  Latin  and  Greek  in  the  best  academies 
and  colleges  of  America  is  much  more  nearly  assimilated  to 
the  German  than  it  was  thirty  years  ago.  American  professors 
have  mastered  the  German  method,  and  have  so  far  applied  this 
that  students  no  longer  need  to  go  to  Germany  for  it. 

Another  feature  of  the  German  system  is  the  pains- taking 
and  exhaustive  treatment  of  the  literature  of  the  topic,  so  that 
the  student  as  far  as  possible  is  put  in  possession  of  all  that  has 
been  said  and  done,  and  of  all  that  is  known  upon  the  subject 
which  he  is  pursuing.  A  German  professor  usually  opens  his 
course  of  lectures  with  a  long  catalogue  of  books  upon  his 
topic,  with  a  brief  characterization  of  each,  thus  bringing  the 
student  as  it  were  into  personal  relation  with  authors,  and  guid- 
ing him  in  the  use  of  the  library. 

But  this  minuteness  and  thoroughness  has  also  its  narrow 
side.  Said  a  German  professor  to  me,  "Our  system  tends 
always  to  Wenigheit ;  we  are  continually  searching  after  some 
little  thing,  some  tiny  point — Wenigkeit."  This  tendency  of 
the  German  student  to  explore  "the  infinitely  little,"  has 
proved  of  immense  service  to  the  scholarship  of  the  world ;  all 
literature  reaps  its  benefits.  My  friend  has  himself  twice  vin- 
dicated the  New  Testament  history  by  the  discovery  of  a 
Wenigkeit  in  chronology,  from  contemporary  Eoman  history  ; 
and  a  work  he  has  now  in  preparation  is  likely  to  do  this  for 
the  third  time.  Most  enjoyable  is  his  enthusiasm  over  the  first 
faint  trace  of  some  Wenigkeit  which  may  help  to  fix  some  date 
or  to  corroborate  a  fact ;  and  Christendom  owes  a  debt  of  grat- 
itude to  such  investigators.  "  But,^^  he  added  with  emphasis, 
"  in  America  you  do  not  need  to  make  the  Wenigkeit  the  object  of 
your  training.  You  have  other  uses  for  educated  minds,  and 
require  other  methods.      With  us  this  is  a  necessity." 

This  necessity  of  German  scholarship  so  fortunate  for  the 
general  increase  of  knowledge,  has  arisen  from  the  old  political 
and  commercial  condition  of  Germany,  now  fast  passing  away. 
Formerly  a  young  man  of  talent  had  before  him  few  openings 
for  commercial  or  political  life,  so  he  betook  himself  to  scholar- 
12 


174  APPENDIX. 

ship.  But  here  almost  every  inch  of  ground  was  pre-occupied, 
by  the  multitude  of  students  and  the  sub-division  of  topics. 
How  should  he  make  his  mark  and  gain  a  footing  ?  Having 
taken  his  doctor's  degree,  he  would  study  to  qualify  himself 
for  recognition  as  a  privat  docent  in  some  university — the  first 
step  toward  a  professorship.  But  now  he  must  write  a  book. 
Tholuck  once  said  to  me,  "  In  America  you  ask,  What  has  a 
man  done  f  In  Germany  we  ask,  What  has  he  written  f  "  The 
book  is  the  young  scholar's  introduction  to  those  who  are  to 
judge  of  his  ability,  and  to  determine  his  future.  But  what 
shall  he  write  ?  Every  topic  has  been  discussed,  every  library 
is  overstocked  ;  so  he  hunts  up  a  Wenigkeit  which  others  have 
overlooked,  some  question  of  accent,  of  punctuation,  of  date, 
and  elaborates  this  into  an  octavo.  Or  failing  of  this  he 
broaches  some  new  theory,  and  launches  forth  a  speculative 
treatise  for  his  prufung^  or  he  writes  over  a  subject  that  had 
been  exhausted  twenty  times  before,  for  the  sake  of  giving 
some  new  version  or  interpretation  to  the  well-worn  theme ;  as 
for  example,  I  see  before  me  at  this  moment  a  new  octavo  of 
350  pages,  stating  afresh  the  theological  system  of  Augustine. 

To  this  state  of  things,  as  well  as  to  some  native  tendency  of 
the  German  mind,  is  due  that  strange  mixture  of  fact  and 
fantasy  that  one  finds  in  works  of  German  scholarship ; — the 
Wenigkeit  hunted  with  a  most  praiseworthy  thoroughness,  but 
the  theoretical  possibility,  the  Moglichkeit,  assumed  or  asserted 
with  the  most  provoking  dogmatism  ; — Niebuhr  upsets  all  old 
traditions  of  Koman  history,  Mommsen  upsets  Niebuhr,  and 
now  my  learned  friend  is  writing  a  book  to  upset  Mommsen 
with  new  facts  and  theories  !  German  scholarship,  and  per- 
haps, too,  the  German  mind,  though  given  to  specious  refinement, 
nevertheless  lacks  that  sharp,  clear,  logical  discrimination  which 
is  so  characteristic  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  mind,  and  pre-eminently 
of  the  New  England  type ;  and  it  is  a  grave  question  for  the 
future  of  American  scholarship  and  philosophy,  of  the  Ameri- 
can pulpit,  and  of  American  statesmanship,  whether  any  con- 
siderable numbers  of  American  youth  shall  be  deprived  of  that 
discipline  of  the  reasoning  powers,  that  exercise  in  the  logic  of 
common  sense,  which  is  of  the  very  essence  of  American  train- 
ing, and  be  sent  to  Germany  to  hunt  the  Wenigkeit  or  chase 


APPENDIX.  175 

after  the  fantasy  ?  The  accuracy,  the  minuteness,  the  patience, 
the  perseverance  in  quest  of  facts,  the  American  boy  should  be 
trained  to  as  thoroughly  and  as  conscientiously  as  is  the  Grer- 
man — but  he  should  also  acquire  the  clearer,  sharper,  stronger 
American  way,  the  more  thoroughly  scientific  way,  of  handling 
and  using  facts,  and  of  discriminating  facts  from  vagaries. 
Track  almost  any  German  professor  or  author,  upon  almost  any 
subject,  and  while  you  own  your  obligation  for  his  patient 
research,  you  are  pretty  likely  to  catch  him  in  some  illogical 
deduction,  some  groundless  assumption,  some  unconscious 
substitution  of  a  theory  for  a  fact ;  or  at  the  moment  you  are 
about  to  measure  accurately  the  height  and  area  of  his  knowl- 
edge, he  will  dodge  behind  the  clouds !  When  the  American 
student  is  mature  enough  to  take  the  fact  and  reject  the  fancy, 
let  him  place  himself  under  the  German  professor;  but  by 
coming  into  such  contact  too  soon,  he  may  lose  in  breadth^  com- 
prehensiveness and  for ce^  where  he  might  gain  in  minuteness  and 
in  specific  fullness. 

Not  long  ago  I  spent  an  evening  in  company  with  two  or 
three  German  professors  and  one  of  the  most  accomplished  of 
English  scholars.  The  Englishman  had  occasion,  in  the  most 
modest  way,  to  show  his  familiarity  with  Greek,  which  was  his 
specialty ;  but  as  various  social  and  philosophical  questions 
came  up,  he  showed  a  depth  of  understanding  and  a  range  of 
reading  that  gave  to  his  conversation  the  charm  of  a  cultivated 
lecture.  I  walked  home  with  one  of  the  GeiTnan  professors — 
who  stands  at  the  head  of  his  department,  and  whose  works 
are  prized  in  England  and  America — and  on  the  way  he  broke 
out  in  this  strain  of  impetuous  melancholy :  "  /  never  meet  a 
well-bred  Englishman  without  being  mortified  at  the  narrowness  of 
our  German  system  of  education.  We  learn  one  thing  thoroughly ; 
aim  to  know  all  about  it ;  but  for  the  rest,  we  must  ask  some 
one  who  has  studied  that ;  whereas  the  English  scholar,  besides 
being  good  in  his  own  department,  knows  much  about  many 
things,  and  can  converse  well  upon  many  subjects.  The  fault 
is  in  our  system ;  it  is  too  narrow.  I  intend  to  educate  my  son 
differently — more  after  the  English  Tnethod.'''' 

Said  another  German  scholar  to  me,  after  I  had  expounded 
the  American  system,  and  had  shown  him  the  course  at  Yale : 


176  APPENDIX. 

"  I  am  satisfied  that  your  system  is  better  than  ours,  especially 
in  the  obligatory  recitations."  And  on  this  point  a  professor 
said :  "  We  need  your  obligatory  method  for  our  young  men. 
We  must  have  the  American  system.  It  is  lamentable  how 
many  young  men  enter  our  Universities  who  never  come  to 
their  degrees,  but  waste  their  time  in  idleness,  in  gaming,  and 
in  beer.  This  comes  of  having  attendance  upon  lectures  vol- 
untary, at  too  early  an  age." 

It  should  be  understood  that,  in  matters  of  education,  Amer- 
ica is  no  longer  a  borrower  on  the  European  raarket.  She  has 
something  to  give  in  exchange  for  whatever  she  receives ;  and  she 
cannot  afford  to  give  her  sons  into  the  hands  of  strangers  at  the 
most  critical  period  of  youth.  To  sum  up  all,  an  American  youth 
of  from  twelve  to  twenty  would  have  little  to  gain  in  a  Euro- 
pean education,  and  if  left  without  parental  guidance  and  con- 
trol, would  run  the  risk  of  losing  much.  He  might  lose  his 
manners  and  his  morals ;  his  patriotic  memories  and  aspirations ; 
his  religious  habits  and  beliefs  ;  he  must  needs  lose  his  identity 
with  American  alumni — so  desirable  for  his  comfort  and  his 
influence  in  after  years,  and  he  would  surely  lack  that  faculty 
of  speech  and  pen  in  his  native  tongue,  and  that  discipline  of 
his  reasoning  powers  in  the  straightforward,  honest,  practical 
American  way,  which  are  so  necessary  to  his  success  in  any  de- 
partment of  professional  or  civil  life,  or  in  the  employment  of 
any  knowledge  or  science  to  the  advantage  of  his  fellow  men. 
An  Americanized  German  can  work  his  way  far  better,  and  is 
altogether  a  better  sort  of  creature,  than  a  Germanized  Ameri- 
can. 

^k^  0?  THB        ^ 

^•gNIVBRSITTJ 


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